Good Deed Entertainment
Last year gave us the surprisingly good Menashe about the insular world of New York Hasidic Jews, and mainly about a father wanting to do good for his son when he isn’t always good at it. I commended that film for its accuracy and respect for the community, which is a complicated tightrope when caricatures and stereotypes abound. Perhaps there’s something in the air, as this movie tries something too.
To Dust comes from director Shawn Snyder, who co-wrote it with Jason Begue, and it stars Hungarian actor Géza Röhrig as Shmuel, a ‘Shaliach Tzibur’ (similar to a cantor, one who leads prayers aloud in a prayer service) for the local Hasidic community, who has recently lost his wife Rivkah. Shmuel is struggling in many ways, including trying to keep it together for his two sons, who are adrift in a different sort of way. He is participating in a ‘shiva’, the seven days one is intended to mourn in a religious way after the death of a loved one.
Shmuel has a horrid nightmare and visions of his wife’s body decomposing and her soul suffering. There is a concept in some Jewish mysticism that the soul does not truly leave the Earth until the body has entirely turned ‘to dust’, and this is something Shmuel believes — but he becomes convinced her soul is in agony. His behavior becomes odder and more erratic as his boys begin to think he is possessed by a dybbuk, a sort of evil spirit or demon.
There are many taboos in religion, many in religious communities, many in Jewish communities, and still more in Hasidic religious communities. Shmuel begins to violate one of these when he pursues concerns about dead bodies, especially when he decides to understand the secular nature of decomposition. A mourner is also not meant to perform strenuous labor or work, but Shmuel steps way over the line when he reaches out to Albert (Matthew Broderick), a low-rent biology professor at the local community college.
Albert has little passion for his job and not particularly much capability. So when Shmuel begins to pester the professor about body decomposition, Albert finds it weird and inappropriate. But naturally, as might be expected, the two connect as they do stupid and inspired acts to discover the truth of when Rivkah might find peace.
To Dust is an odd duck of a movie, with frequent shots of dead or decaying bodies, high sadness and drama, and a vague sense of magical realism. Yet it also presents a sort of buddy comedy between Albert and Shmuel, albeit one that falls into the extreme indie realm and thus has humor nearly entirely based on awkwardness and inappropriateness. I do like that humor at times, but the movie didn’t really feel so funny to me.
The comedy didn’t really work for me, but perhaps the camaraderie did. Watching these two different men try to connect through empathy was interesting, and many of the (mostly) accurate touches about Shmuel’s community added useful color. The subplot with the boys is a bit all over the place without an entirely clear resolution, but the acting was pretty believable from them.
I think this is a good sort of role for Matthew Broderick, a bumbling, earnest character, and I don’t know Géza Röhrig from much but he added authenticity and depth to this troublesome character. I am though hard pressed to guess who should see this movie; it doesn’t really fit it into any bucket. I suppose those intrigued by morbidity and its intersection with religion, with an interest for character and a movie limited on caricature, may find this a watchable movie.
But I would recommend finish eating before you start watching.
To Dust has a run time of 1 hour 32 minutes and is rated R for language and some disturbing images.
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