Sixty Six

If you picture Helena Bonham Carter as a Jewish mother from the 1960's, beehive and all, that should be enough to make run to see Sixty Six.

Sixty six is the year. Bernie Reubens is the kid. The 13 year old kid to be exact. Bernie's the awkward, picked-on kid, the one living in the shadow of his popular older brother. The kid whose only luck is bad.

Lo and behold in his religious (Hebrew) classes, he learns that his impending Bar Mitzvah is the event that will change all that. For one day Bernie Reubens would be the center of the universe.

The quirky boy makes his Bar Mitzvah his obsession. In the backyard garage, he has a table set up, more like a shrine devoted to things Bar Mitzvah. Catering menus, a place setting, pictures, seating charts, everything to make this day his perfect one.

There's one glitch.

The World Cup falls on the same day. And, England could qualify for the finals. No one would come to Bernie's Bar Mitzvah if this happened.

Bernie makes it his singleminded mission to prevent England from competing in the finals. How he tries to do this is plain hysterical. Let's just say that there's some hocus pocus involved and tons of laughs.

There's another glitch. Bernie's dad's career takes a bad financial turn. Don't get me started about the father character. Played by actor Eddie Marsan, the odd elder Reubens is a cartoon-like character with amazing comedic timing. In a Mr. Magoo kind of way.

If I said what happens to Bernie is comedy of errors, I would be understating it. From bad to worse, and bad again, Bernie's day isn't looking like his dream Bar Mitzvah. But some bittersweet things happen between he and his dad. Enough to tug your heart. And, tug again.

Almost never have I been to a movie that made me laugh during the introduction and then tear up at the end. Even the credits are worth watching since the actors' names are superimposed over film footage of an actual '60's Bar Mitzvah, which happens, I'm assuming, to be that of the director's older brother. His was Bernie's dream day.

I only collect the odd movie DVD from the movies that I adore. As soon as this becomes available, it's mine. I'll have a Sixty Six party. Prerequisite, you must be born before that year.

Supposedly, Sixty Six is based on the director, Paul Weilland's life. I know some Brits who remember the World Cup of 1966 with special affection. And, I personally remember a variety of awkward boys confronting their manhood at many a Bar Mitzvah. (where I smoked my fist cigarette in the synagogue bathroom.) Then there's the dad stuff...more tugs. Go see it!

OK, perhaps my perception is biased by the fact that my Bar Mitzvah was in 1962, albeit Chicago. But this movie rang true on every count: the family business, the distracted (worried) father, the overprotective mother, the domineering brother (just like mine), and the exaggerated importance that (we) twelve year old boys desired of our "coming out party." The movie made me laugh out loud, and even audibly groan at the pathetic human foibles. Bernie's family was (almost, but not quite) as crazy as my own. But the central theme of the film was neither the craziness of family nor the anticipation of disaster. It was how Bernie and his family got through it all and learned core and timeless values. I do not want to spoil it, so I will just say that the ending was incredibly fulfilling. Every Rabbi should see this film. Every parent should see it with their twelve year old -- boy or girl, Jew or Gentile.

Personally, I think so. For those of you unaware of his work he is responsible for directing almost all of the Mr Bean programmes which have entertained generations of multi lingual people, he also directed my favourite film, Bernard and the Genie. For those of you unaware of this film please search for it now and look at some of the comments about it has received, its quite simply the best Christmas film ever recorded. He delivers simple but massively effective narratives which appeal to all ages, easy to watch films which last long in the memory of all those who watch them. I fear Sixty Six will not be well received due to poor marketing (who exactly did it appeal too? I only watched it on the strengh of its director) but having just watched it I can assure anyone thinking about giving it a go to just WATCH IT! Its hilariously funny and deeply moving and the story flows like a butterfly. I was utterly dismayed I was sharing the experience of Sixty Six with 4 other people knowing full well it would be enjoyed by thousands if not millions more. Paul Weiland please stand up and take your place as one of Englands finest directors/writers and for the love of all things sacred make more films and continue the 'Bernie' trend :)

I like all kinds of movies, and this quiet, thoughtful, 'homemade' kind of Brit-flick was enjoyable. There's not much of a plot--- a kid's approaching bar mitzvahs happens to fall on the same day as the 1966 soccer World Cup Final match. That scheduling conflict means no one will attend his event, and he has been taught and primed to expect the bar mitzvahs to be the most significant and important day in his life. So he is freaking out a bit--- but the soccer game is an issue only if Englands winds enough qualification games to enter the finals, and no one expects them to. Done. That's the plot. Obviously, the Big Day arrives; I leave it to you to discover how England fares, and how the kid's family life unfolds.

An important sub-plot is the kid's family. the dad is a retiring and overly-shy shlub, contrasted with his dynamic and 'life of the party', go-getter brother, the kid's uncle. The kid's older brother is a vicious bully, and his mom (Helena Bonham Carter) is the only loving, reasonable voice of strength in the family. Oh--- the kid's blind rabbi and bar mitzvahs coach, and Stephen Rae as the kid's physician also play a guiding roles for the boy.

Anyway--- things kind of creep along for the first half. It became a bit tedious, and I contemplated leaving. However, the second half was much perkier than the first, and the ending was genuinely exciting and thrilling. So, overall, while the pace was bit uneven, the end result was a pretty satisfying movie. In retrospect, I kind of wished the front end could have been a bit racier, or less 'portraiting' of the depressing family, or something. On balance, I liked it.

The coming of age tale is always one of the most enjoyable and heartfelt types of film, with Sixty Six proving that it is worth the viewer's time because of the wonderful character driven film that it is. It should be noted that because of the film's plot, you should immediately know that it won't be story driven outside of the characters' individual stories. To make it simple, if you know how the 1966 World Cup turned out, you know how this film is going to end. So, it is for that reason that I say, if you don't know how that World Cup ended, don't look it up. The film will tell you, and to be honest, it was one of the things that made it such a great movie for me. Knowing the outcome of the matches, however, doesn't take away from the experience.

In a character driven film, the performances are obviously the most important, and here we have a trifecta of awesomeness. First and foremost, in one of my favorite performances of the decade, Eddie Marsan really shows some muscle and range as Bernie's father, in one of the most silently moving performances of recent memory. The character by himself is a hell of a subject to study, a neurotic and paranoid man who has lost faith in his own life because of the lack of success in his family business, and feeling distant from his wife. Marsan pulls this off wonderfully. You can't help but feel bad for him, despite numerous bad choices in the film.

Helena Bonham Carter is, as usual, excellent as Bernie's mother. I really appreciated her towards the end of the film, when all of our characters have an epiphany. Youngster Gregg Sulkin is wonderful in his first role, and he should have plenty of work in the future. What you get from this film is a tad bit of predictability, yet where that hurts the film, the characters make up for it. Even supporting characters, such as one played by Stephen Rea, are as intriguing as the big three.

If you enjoy teary moments, boys becoming men in their life, and a bit of British humor, Sixty Six is bound to be enjoyable for you. I was very glad I caught it in the brief run it had in my theater, because it's definitely one of the better movies that has come out recently, in addition to providing a nice break from all the summer explosions. As for Brits looking for this film to see, odds are that it's already on DVD in your neck of the woods, as it was released in the UK about two years ago.