Bonsái is a very, VERY low-key comedy plus dreamy meditation on the nature of memory and of literature - and of bonsai - admittedly NOT most movie-goers' cup of tea. The only action is fairly frequent sex, but even that is more drolly amusing and detached than either erotic or romantic.
The central place Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past occupies in this movie is no accident (the current fad is to translate Proust's French title as In Search of Lost Time, which is literal but moronic). The theme, the tone, the focus, the slow flow with strong but intangible undercurrents of this extraordinary movie are as true a filming of Proust's unfilmable 5000-page masterpiece as we're likely ever to see.
Bonsái could not have been made without Diego Noguera in the lead as Julio. His exquisite grace, charm, humor and intelligence permeate the whole movie, and viewers to whom he does not appeal will be left cold and annoyed.
If you love the movie, as I do, it's because of Noguera. Cristián Jiménez certainly deserves great credit for constructing such a remarkable movie, but with any other actor in the key role it would have fallen flat.
