Adam Resurrected (2008/Image Entertainment Blu-ray)
Picture: B- Sound:
B- Extras: C+ Film: C+
Paul Schrader usually writes everything he directs, but
when I heard he was doing a film on the Holocaust, I wondered where it would
go, especially since his writing tendencies have been somewhat to the Right of
ideology to the point that some writers have accused him of being
semi-fascist. In this case, Noah
Stollman adapted from a novel by Yoram Kaniuk, resulting in Adam Resurrected (2008), with Jeff
Goldblum effective as a Holocaust survivor whose still an internal wreck.
Once a circus performer and stage comic, he was brought to
a concentration camp and psychologically tortured and mocked by an especially
evil officer (Willem Dafoe), and decades later is in an institution for
survivors trying to help them when he can barely help himself. He befriends a nurse (Ayelet Zurer from Angels & Demons) and deals with a
new doctor (Derek Jacobi) trying to help him.
A very damaged child becomes the final person that starts to jar him out
of his personal torment, but much pain is ahead, if he can even survive it.
The relationship between performing jokes (and in this
case, a clown) and humiliation at the hands of the Nazis is always one of the
toughest tightrope acts ideologically in any film on the subject, with any
wrong move adding to a potential trivialization of The Holocaust or support of
the idea that you can somehow laugh it off.
Despite Schrader’s tendencies, the film never collapses totally in that
direction, but at 106 minutes, does not do enough to thoroughly deal with the
material, making it just another film on the subject that few will remember
down the line.
The actors (including Moritz Bleibtreu of Run Lola Run and Spielberg’s Munich, both reviewed elsewhere on this
site) give good performances and Goldblum is believable in the role of the
damaged title character, but Schrader just cannot pull off a film on the
subject that can work and for a serious, gritty filmmaker, the
fantasy/imaginary elements are atypical of his output, though this is no
fantasy genre film. However, he has lost
his edge since his failed Exorcist
prequel from 2005 and it is hard to see if he’ll get it back. Here, he is just too out of his element to
make this material work if he ever could to begin with.
The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot
in the Super 35mm film format and offers a mixed result with some good shots,
some stylized shots that do work, some that don’t and a variant of black &
white that never totally works. However,
the softness and lack of detail, along with some Video Black limits, hold this
transfer back. The DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) lossless 5.1 is a dialogue-based mix and considering Schrader’s films
are sometimes as monophonic as Woody Allen’s, it is noteworthy that it sounds
as good as it does. Extras include the
original theatrical trailer, Deleted Scenes, a behind-the-scenes featurette,
Haifa International Film Festival Q&A and feature length audio commentary
track by Schrader.
- Nicholas Sheffo
