South Africa's got big problems: retrenchment, robbery, unemployment, Julius Malema, hijacking, corruption, and films that usually, well, suck. But 'Finding Lenny' laughs in the face of such adversity ? tackling our country's heavy shit with almost the right balance of irreverence and sensitivity, it's a local comedy that's actually funny.

Not that this story of redemption and soccer is perfect. Jokes ? and sometimes entire comic scenes ? fall flat. Stereotypes barge their way in. The central message of 'everything happens for a reason' is handled as delicately as the NPA's botched Jacob Zuma's case. And a few emotional moments have all the subtlety of a judge driving his Jaguar through a brick wall.

But Barry Hilton, in his first film role, is surprisingly convincing and a better performer than many stand-up comics who make their way into successful acting careers (yes, you, Jerry Seinfeld, who spent nine seasons barely hiding your smirk). His Lenny Vincent certainly shares the white middle-class middle-aged everyman qualities Hilton embodies, so (like Ricky Gervais) he may just be playing a version of himself. Yet it's a relief to find that he does much more than stand and deliver one-liners (or laugh at his own wisecracks) as he portrays the journey of a man looking for his place in a country he no longer recognises.

A sports journalist content with his lot in life, his mundane existence is changed entirely in the space of 24 hours: fired; ditched by adulterous wife; robbed; thrown into boot of car; dumped near tribal settlement. But through his questionable skills and the chief's surprising insistence he becomes trainer of the rural community's football team. The catch? They must win a match against a corporate team to keep their ancestral land.

JM Coetzee's 'Disgrace' this is not. But director and co-writer Neal Sundstrom mostly keeps things tight, Russel Savadier is appropriately manic as the prerequisite funny friend, the central romance is oddly believable, and there's not a fart in earshot.

Now that's a relief.