'The Way He Looks' a charming coming-of-age tale

A sweet coming-of-age tale that’s refreshingly free of angst, the Brazilian film “The Way He Looks” has at its center Leo (Ghilherme Lobo), a classical-music-loving blind teen who’s gradually realizing that he’s gay.

The object of his nascent affections is Gabriel (Fabrio Audi), a charming new boy at school.

Leo can’t see Gabriel’s tousled curls and confident smile, but he nonetheless lights up in the other boy’s presence - to the dismay of Giovana (Tess Amorim), the longtime friend who’s always walked Leo to and from school.

Her wistful gaze tells us - but not Leo - all we need to know about her feelings for him.

Writer/director Daniel Ribeiro sorts out this triangle agreeably, moving us swiftly through the love troubles to happy endings all around.

Leo’s blindness, presented matter-of-factly, is the cause of some bullying at school - and some overprotectiveness from his worried mother (Lucia Romano).

But it’s nothing that a boy with friends at his side can’t overcome. (His blindness isn’t what they see; indeed, they sometimes forget about it. “Have you seen that video of the cat in the toilet?” Gabriel asks Leo. Well, no, he hasn’t.)

Along the way, we learn that high-school camping trips in Brazil seem rather more posh than they are here, that the music of Belle and Sebastian charms even the staunchest classical-music fan, and that Leo is still, as his mother lovingly reminds him, “really very young.”

The movie feels like the gentle first chapter in Leo’s story; life and love stretch out ahead of him, like a deliciously winding road.