The right guy to play a lost soul

Bob Byington’s spare tragicomedy “7 Chinese Brothers” serves as a prime example of getting the right guy for the right job.

The guy in question is Jason Schwartzman, who couldn’t be a better choice to play Larry, a lost soul of a perennial loser who drifts through life like it was a rundown carnival ride accompanied by the weary organ music that serves as the soundtrack.

When we first meet Larry, he’s just been fired from his job at Buca di Beppo and lands another dead-end gig at Quick-Lube auto repair, where he’s smitten by the spirited garage manager (a lovely Eleanore Pienta).

Despite receiving career counseling from his feisty grandmother (always swell Olympia Dukakis), you know Larry’s just one more screw-up away from another pink slip, and yet somehow, just when you’re ready to dismiss him, Schwartzman forces you to reconsider.

An intelligent actor whose sad sack demeanor has often been put to good use by director Wes Anderson, most effectively in “Rushmore,” Schwartzman does similarly well by Byington, whose slight portrait (taking its name from the title of an R.E.M. song) might not otherwise sustained its quirky charm without him.

By widening his soulful puppy eyes — matched only, quite eerily, by those of his French bulldog in real life, Arrow — Schwartzman successfully dares audiences to care.

“7 Chinese Brothers.” No MPAA rating. Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes. Playing: Sundance Sunset, Los Angeles.