To visit his father at work in a Haifa mall,
Shaul Tzimmer must first be wanded by security. It will soon be that way here
too. At least it hasn’t hurt business for Shimon Tzimmer’s employers. Apparently
they can still easily afford to pay him to putter about. He is delighted to see
his somewhat estranged son again, but he is about the only one who voluntarily opts
for the sourpuss’s company in Raphaël Nadjari’s
A Strange Course of Events (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New York.
Shaul Tzimmer is a divorced father who is
stuck in a joyless job as a late-night hospital receptionist. The worst part
about his life is his full understanding of his loserishness. For some reason,
Tzimmer decides to visit the father he has not seen in years, even though he hardly
shows any desire to patch things up. Regardless, he is stuck going through the
motions when his father introduces him to his New Agey but age-appropriate girlfriend
Bati. Shaul does not have much to say to her, but he doesn’t have much charm
for anyone. Unfortunately, things will get even more awkward when a freak
accident lays Tzimmer up in Haifa.
It is a testament to the stringent reserve of Nadjari
and his co-screenwriter Geoffroy Grison that the modest conclusion feels
genuinely satisfying. I’m not saying this film is sleight of stature, but it
needs a paperweight to keep it from blowing away with the wind. Arguably, Jocelyn
Soubiran & Jean-Pierre Sluys’ distinctive, vaguely Middle Eastern-flavored sound
track does exactly that, supplying heft and flavor to the light-weight film.
In all fairness, Ori Pfeffer also deserves
tremendous credit for his weirdly engaging work as Tzimmer. He is painfully
standoffish, yet Pfeffer makes it clear he would like to be more sociable and
approachable, but he just does not have it in him. Moni Moshonov is also rock-solid
as Shimon Tzimmer, but Michela Eshet is unfortunately annoying as the batty
Bati.
