pearlstonsteven

This movie is not a retelling of the Book of Job. It is not about the chaos of the universe. It is not about human nature. It seems that everyone is falling all over themselves to universalize the theme, but the theme is not universal. It is about Jewish pessimism: Whatever CAN go wrong, WILL go wrong. It's as simple as that. I saw this when it first came out with a child of Holocaust survivors. We left the theater laughing hysterically. Considering where we saw it, we were probably the only Jews in the theater. Nobody else was laughing. Reading the reviews at the time was an eye opener. They were almost all wrong about it. You Goyim just don't get it.

This is a very nice film, with deep resonance for older people. I am a senior, an old-fashion Jewish lefty, and a Bernie Bro since before that was a thing. But two gratuitous Republican-bashing scenes in this film, really not even scenes but throwaways, had my blood boiling. Any senior on "the other side," watching this, would be instantly alienated, and deprived of the rewards of empathizing with the characters' plight. Hollywood has been nasty to Christians and Republicans for decades, just because it can. And don't try to deny that this longstanding disregard of "the other side's" feelings is part of what got us Donald Trump.

The sets, props, and lighting are all copies of the originals, but most of the performances make no attempt at expressionism, or any other kind of stylization. They sound like modern Americans reading a modern script, which of course they are and it is, although the script would allow for more imaginativeness. The result is discordant, and just seems silly. It leads me to wonder what a Johnny Depp would have done with any of these roles.