A JEWISH LIFE IN ARGENTINA.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

IN THE WELL-OBSERVED ``Lost Embrace,'' Daniel Hendler plays Ariel, a young man who would rather be doing anything than working in his mother's lingerie shop. This despite the obvious perks of the job, which includes the sexy Internet cafe operator in their downscale Buenos Aires mall, who always needs Ariel's help in the dressing room.

But Ariel is a restless soul. He wants to study art. He wants to get out of economically depressed Argentina, and plots to get his hands on a passport from Poland, which his grandmother escaped from during World War II.

Mostly, though, he wants to quit being reminded of his father, Elias (Jorge D'Elia), whose name adorns the underwear emporium. Elias split around the time of his infant son's bris, and hasn't returned from Israel since fighting in the Yom Kippur War. Ariel resents the man terribly, and doesn't understand why his mother, Sonia (Adriana Aizenberg), and older brother, Joseph (Sergio Boris), don't share his anger.

Of course, by film's end, Ariel learns why. But the marvel of Daniel Burman's film is how every step of the way, something funny or sexy or thoroughly humanizing about Ariel and a wide cast of supporting characters is illuminated while the main plot issue stays on low simmer.

Argentina's polyglot population, as mixed as our own, is initially rendered in hoary stereotypes, but we soon learn why the inscrutable Korean couple runs a feng shui store and that the loud Italian electronics repairman really has something to say. The economic interplay between first- and second-generation immigrants and the nation's Latino majority is subtly and convincingly explored.

Buenos Aires' Jewish community is marvelously detailed. I don't know which sequence is more delightful - the rabbi about to leave for a sweet job in Miami explaining the very practical reasoning behind the honor thy father and mother commandment, or Ariel's dotty grandmother (Rosita Londner) breaking into the Yiddish song she hasn't voiced for decades and not being able to stop.

``Lost Embrace'' is one of the most thorough and persuasive coming-of- age stories you're ever likely to see. Everyone in the movie is a fine actor, but Uruguayan Hendler is exceptional in his emotional spontaneity, intelligent confusion and ability to chart Ariel's moral growth.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

LOST EMBRACE - Three and one half stars

(Not rated: language, sex, nudity)

Starring: Daniel Hendler, Adriana Aizenberg, Jorge D'Elia, Sergio Boris.

Director: Daniel Burman.

Running time: 1 hr. 40 min.

Playing: Landmark NuWilshire Theatre in Santa Monica and at the Edwards University Town 6, Irvine.

In a nutshell: Terrific character work marks this Argentine film about a young Jewish man trying to define his identity. In Spanish and Yiddish with English subtitles.