This particular genre is a bit like found footage horror: a lot of new film makers see it as an easy and affordable way of getting their foot in the door.
A restrained but curiously authentic feeling story that is not itself about Menashe getting remarried (as it is often advertized) but more about him dealing with the pressure to do so. There is something horribly feasible in the premise and the writing is naturalistic without ever becoming drab or dull. This is a story you can believe is happening right now in little communities all over the world and it tells this story without sensationalism or soap opera heaviness.
The narrative is fragmented into episodes of Menashe having fun with his son, doing his job and Jewish stuff. It's a serene and rather charming vision into the life of someone is really just a regular guy, he happens to just be part of a particular community he has no desire to subvert or part from, yet find himself victim to the values he has implicitly accepted.
The film is at its most charming when Menashe is with his son. The details of this brand of Judaism which Menashe tries uphold and pass down to him really make the movie memorable and touching while those very same values strive to keep them apart.
This will not be everyone's cup of tea: although nothing transgressive it will simply be too leisurely and uneventful for many people and this is indeed a movie where you just have to feel the moment: the prayers at a cemetery, picking a painting of a Rabbi etc. You may easily find it hard to stay awake or watch this in one sitting. But for what it is, it is pretty much note perfect and leaves you with a powerful sense of the quite desperation and helplessness that so many of us just have to live with.
There is a moment where I was holding my breath, you'll know it when you see it...
