Following his underrated urban tragicomedy Adam & Paul (2005), director Lenny Abrahamson ventures to rural Ireland for Garage. Like his last film, the joy is in the details, those small quirks of human behaviour which are usually glossed over in broad comedy. This time there's a lot more soul as well and a little less shtick as village idiot Josie (Pat Shortt) extends the hand of friendship to a 15-year-old boy and ends up being branded a sex pest.

From his chair outside the garage, Josie doesn't even have the benefit of watching the world go by. Motorists are few and far between so he occupies himself by shifting the Castrol GTX strand indoors and outdoors, and back indoors again. Trips to the pub offer little respite since he's usually the butt of the jokes. Then, when awkward teenager David (Conor Ryan) begins work at the garage, it rocks Josie's world. David thinks he's "sound" because he lets him drink beer, but after Josie shows him a porno movie, "just for the craic", the cops come knocking.

"BOLDY UNDERSTATED"

The bitter irony is that Josie, played with brilliant subtlety by Shortt, is a beacon of innocence compared to David who, like the good Catholic, is burdened by shame. Throughout, Josie shows patience and decorum in the face of shocking indecency. When the girl he fancies (Anne-Marie Duff) drunkenly embraces him in the pub before bluntly announcing she's "not interested", it's heartbreaking rather than funny. But Abrahamson also tips the balance of comedy and tragedy the other way, like a scene where Josie struggles to make idle chit-chat with a local as he drowns a bag of puppies. It works because Abrahamson adopts a slightly removed, matter-of-fact approach that mirrors Josie's experience of the world. This does rob the finale of some power, but for a film so boldly understated, it does keep the cogs turning.

Garage is out in the UK on 7th March 2008.