Here is yet another film from Romania which makes a positive virtue of its small budget, offering a shrewd summation of human relationships. While it doesn’t compare with 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Radu Muntean’s story of ordinary people struggling with their lives seems totally truthful to its characters.

The central figure is Boogie (the excellent Dragos Bucur), whom we first see playing on the beach with his young son and his wife (Anamaria Marinca, one of the leads in 4 Months). Wandering around a depressing seaside resort, Boogie meets two former friends (Mimi Branescu and Adrian Vancica) who try to persuade him to stay out late, drink himself silly and pick up a prostitute.

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He refuses, but when he returns home there is the film’s best sequence, as his wife accuses him of leaving her to do all the work looking after their child. It’s unfair but totally believable, and he marches off in a huff to meet his friends again. One of them has indeed picked up a willing girl and offers her to him.

Boogie is really about how people try to recapture their youth, and it quietly makes its point without undue dramatics. It is small but cherishable and manages to go places other films only strive for.