North Sea Texas/Noordzee Texas

Directed by Bavo Defurne. Starring Jelle Floorizoone, Eva Van Der Gucht, Mathias Vergels, Katelijne Damen Club, Light House, Dublin, 96 min

WE DON’T WISH to be mean. But, a few minutes into this attractive Belgian picture, cineliterate viewers are likely to find themselves thinking: “Oh, it’s one of these things.” A cynic might suggest it be subtitled Sensitive Gay Coming-of- Age Drama No 421.

That’s unfair. Yes, Bavo Defurne’s film does travel over some familiar ground. A young man, raised in a seaside backwater, has his first sexual dalliances while coping with an insensitive parent. The story is as old as the weather. But the picture has a seductive, sand-blasted look and is enlivened by subtle performances. We can find room for one more example of the genre.

Taking place in the late 1960s and early 1970s, North Sea Texas finds young Pim (Jelle Floorizoone) growing increasingly frustrated by his eccentric mother (Eva Van Der Gucht), who spends her time pursuing unsuitable men.

Happily, Pim has a protector in Marcella (Katelijne Damen), a workmate of his mother. The decent, financially strapped woman welcomes the lad into her home, where he becomes close to her son Gino (Mathias Vergels). A good- looking motorbike enthusiast, Gino is a familiar figure in gay fiction: the charmer who initiates the hero into carnal pleasures, but turns out to be just through on his way to heterosexual conformity.

After the recent orgy of 1970s vulgarity in Dark Shadows, Defurne’s film offers a less arch take on the decade. The sparsely decorated houses, all lit by crisp maritime light, welcome actors dressed in spotless cotton and box- fresh denim. The bar which gives the picture its title is so well scrubbed you would happily eat your Moules-frites off its welcoming surface.

Maybe it sweeps by a little too placidly. Most of the crises either happen off screen or play out with little more than polite murmuring. Still, the film is so tasteful it would seem boorish to complain.