“The Heart Knows” is a bland and sentimental serving of cinematic romance comfort food from Argentina.

No, that’s not much an endorsement until you remember that “comfort food” is comforting for a reason. It plays sweetly and goes down easily and Hallmark Channel fans will find things to like about it.

Juan Manuel (Benjamín Vicuña) is a rich, dashing commitment-phobic 40something CEO of a building firm — “Concretely.” He takes tennis lessons, has a mansion, a housekeeper, a steady, high-maintenance girlfriend (Annasofia Facello) and a group of bros he takes trips with, including his top lieutenant and oldest friend at work, Tony (Peto Menahem).

And a few minutes into the melodrama titled “Corazón delator” in Spanish, he has a heart attack on his way to the airport for a bro’s weekend.

That’s also the night of Vale’s (Julieta Diaz) birthday. She’s a waitress/activist for her working poor neighborhood, El Progreso, an area doomed by planned city redevolopment. And on this night, her motorcycling husband, Pedro (Facundo Espinosa), has an accident and winds up brain dead.

Newly-widowed and now single-mom Vale has to make the call. Yes, we’re donating his organs. And you know without me telling you where Pedro’s heart goes.

Juan Manuel recovers, thanks to that heart transplant. But his mania for work and passion for good times seem to have faded. Survivor’s guilt has him wondering who donated his heart. Being rich, he can find that out.

But showing up in El Progreso, where the locals are frantically trying to rebuild their local clinic with no money, and passing himself off as a “construction worker” doesn’t pass the smell test — even when he’s dressed-down.

“You worked in construction, with those hands,” Vale wants to know (in Spanish or dubbed into English)?

She is the most suspicious of the somewhat colorful neighborhood “types” who welcome Juan and his contributions to the labor, materials etc.

In his “real” life, Juan is facing a showdown with his family company and city hall over the planned demolition and new rec center Concretely has been backing for many months. It will be built in El Progreso in Buenos Aires. Vale and her friends are to be evicted to make room for it.

Writer-director Carlos Carnevale, a veteran of Argentine cinema (“Elsa y Fred”) and TV, populates the neighborhood with just a couple of colorful characters — the antic, foul-mouthed special needs adult Pollo (Bicho Gómez) and neighborhood cynic/thug Horacio (Yayo Guridi) stand out.

Carnevale has Juan take “lessons” on living — “See what it’s like to work for REAL?” — among the working poor from his housekeeper/cook Nancy (Julia Calvo). Here’s how you take the bus, boss.

“You don’t take an Audi into that neighborhood!”

The script is formulaic and almost criminally unsurprising. The roles are basically a collection of sketched-in “types.” Vale is barely developed as a character and mother to her not-really-mourning little boy (Manuel da Silva).

Juan’s transformation isn’t supernatural, but “existential crisis” doesn’t quite cover it, either.

Yes, “tennis lessons” and congenital heart failure go hand in hand. Have you ever eaten in an Argentine restuarant? Meat, meat and meat with a side of meat and meat for dessert.

And yes, “The Heart Knows” where it’s going and gets there in a reasonably short amount of time. A couple of sentimental moments hit the sweet spot even if the performances are pretty much colorless.

Rating: TV-14, violence, lots of profanity

Cast: Benjamín Vicuña,
Julieta Díaz, Facundo Espinosa, Julia Calvo, Manuel da Silva, Annasofia Facello, Yayo Guridi and Peto Menahem.

Credits: Scripted and directed by Carlos Carnevale. A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:29