Friends struggle with their destinies and love lives in Daniel Sanchez Arévalo's assured debut feature Azuloscurocasinegro (DarkBlueAlmostBlack). Starring likeable thespians, the film is a melodrama of the bittersweet Spanish kind that involves prisons, ill fathers, rooftop conversations, pregnancies and a mad dash of homosexuality. Though clearly belonging to a specific genre, the film  can stand comfortably on its own despite some minor shortcomings and improbable plot turns, especially towards the end. Arevalo seems a worthwhile addition to the growing ranks of providers of solid and entertaining stories taken from life as seen through a melodramatic prism.

The twentysomething Jorge (newcomer Quim Gutiérrez) is the caretaker and concierge of an apartment building, a job he inherited when his father Andrés (Héctor Colome, from Obaba) became incapacitated seven years earlier. Andrés now needs Jorge's daily care for eating, washing and even remembering who he is and how the things around him are called. Jorge's brother Antonio (Antonio de la Torre, Penélope Cruz's unfortunate husband in Volver) is not in a position to help, being held for an unspecified crime. In prison he joins a theatre workshop so that he can meet girls to have sex with. Before the first workshop is over, he has established contact with Paula (Shooting Star Marta Erura), who would love to get pregnant to move to the more comfortable maternity ward. 

Jorge's best friend Israel (Raul Arévalo, a comic genius in the making) -- sometimes called "Sean" because people think he looks like Sean Penn --  is the son of aquarium shop owners and likes to keep Jorge company in the evening on the roof of the building, where they have installed a comfortable bench and keep a goldfish in a bowl. Things start to become complicated when Sean invents a paid job of dubious morality: spying on a masseur on the other side of the street and taking and then selling photos of him working the intimate parts of his clients (apparently this is included in his price).

Jorge is also desperately looking for another job, having just finished a degree after seven years of part-time study. Both will get more than they bargained for: Sean will recognise someone he knows very well on one of the photos and Jorge will eventually find a job that suits him well for all the wrong reasons. In an attempt to keep his acquaintance from receiving the apparently included male-to-male sexual gratification from the masseur, Sean starts blocking the appointments by going to the masseur himself -- where inadvertently he will discover a few things about his own sexuality. 

Arévalo handles his dense web of storylines well and makes them intersect at unexpected places several times. In the film's second half there are some scenes that seem to go against who the characters really are (a subplot involving Andres' money and a scene involving an attack with a pair of scissors feel like remnants of early Almodovar camp), but for each scene that does not work there are at least ten that do, making the film speed by without much time to reflect on what does not work. The fact that the characters are played with evident affability by mostly good-looking actors certainly doesn't hurt either.

Speed is also established by the gliding camerawork of cinematographer Juan Carlos Gomez and the fluid editing by Nacho Ruiz Capillas. The conclusion is not completely satisfying because of sudden violent acts that might induce laughs but make little sense morally.