The seeming randomness of the assorted human interac tions in “Hello Lonesome” gradually becomes illuminating and just a little bit profound.
The film rotates, Robert Altman style, among three short stories that slowly cohere. In one, a widow (Lynn Cohen) who is missing her husband and is equally attached to her classic car gives up driving and allows herself to be taken shopping by her wry neighbor (James Urbaniak). In another, a hip young sports freak (Nate Smith) starts dating a sweet girl (Sabrina Lloyd) he met online. Meanwhile, a sardonic, aging voice-over artist (Harry Chase, a veteran of the art who is making his debut performance on camera) who lives a boy’s fantasy life in the country with his hot tub and his guns swaps insults with his delivery man (Kamel Boutros). The delivery guy turns out to be the closest thing the voice actor has to a friend now that his wife has left him and his daughter won’t even return phone calls.
First-time writer-director Adam Reid has a lightly endearing touch as he allows the actors plenty of space to be warm without being cute. At one point it appears all three stories are going to end the same way, but Reid is too clever to allow the audience to get ahead of him. Instead, he gently lets the vectors of need and affection multiply as he quietly develops a thought about our need to interact with one another in relationships sexual, filial, fraternal, even neighborly. Few films celebrate ordinary, nice people — or are as wise about why basic kindness matters.