By John Corrado

In her feature debut, the crowd-pleasing dramedy Bob Trevino Likes It, writer-director Tracie Laymon crafts a surprisingly tender portrait of an unlikely friendship, drawn from her own life.

Lily Trevino (Barbie Ferreira) is a bubbly but insecure young woman who has a strained relationship with her self-absorbed father Robert (French Stewart). When her father rejects her and cuts off all communication, Lily finds a profile for another Bob Trevino on Facebook and sends a friend request.

It turns out that this Bob Trevino (played by John Leguizamo) is actually a lonely, mild-mannered construction project manager who just so happens to share the same name as her dad. A few message exchanges later, the two meet in person, and a friendship blossoms. They both need each other, but perhaps Lily needs him more to fill the void left by her actual father.

Laymon walks a careful tightrope with her film. One wrong step, and the material might come off as either unsettling and creepy or overly maudlin. But Laymon takes this potentially offbeat – though semi-autobiographical – premise, and spins it into what is ultimately a meaningful look at the idea of chosen family. The sort of surrogate father-daughter dynamic that forms between Lily and Bob is sensitively handled, and the scenes between them are where the film is at its strongest.

Lily is someone whose heightened emotional responses harken back to feelings of abandonment she experienced as a child, and Ferreira plays her convincingly. Leguizamo does lovely work here, with his quiet, understated portrayal of a lonely man embracing a new friendship that helps fill a hole in his own life. It’s pretty stellar character work from an actor who has dabbled in both comedy and drama.

The relationship between Lily, who works as a live-in caretaker, and her client Daphne (Lauren Spencer), feels a bit forced. The film also has a sort of flat look to it (it’s lit like a TV movie at times), but these are more minor complaints. Fereirra and Leguizamo both deliver strong performances that keep us engaged in the story through its various developments. It’s a small film of small moments, but those small moments feel huge for the characters, and Laymon’s film earns the tears that come by the end.

Film Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)

Bob Trevino Likes It is now playing exclusively in limited release at TIFF Lightbox in Toronto, and expands to more cities on March 28th. It’s being distributed in Canada by Photon Films.