Irena’s Vow: Dan Gordon’s Broadway Hit on the Big Screen

More Polish citizens have been recognized at Yad Vashem as Righteous Among Nations than any other nationality. Ninety-nine of them were named Irene. Gal Gadot is working on the story of one: Irene Sendler, who saved over 2,500 children from the Warsaw ghetto. Irene Gut [Opdyke] “only” saved twelve Jews during the occupation, but she did it literally under the nose of a senior National Socialist officer. Screenwriter-playwright-novelist-reserve duty IDF officer Dan Gordon adapted his own hit Broadway play for the big-screen, in time for it to release amid escalating antisemitic attacks, here and abroad. The rescuer’s story comes at a particularly urgent time, when Louise Archambault’s Irene’s Vow screens nationwide tomorrow and Tuesday, via Fathom Events.

Having been brutalized by Russian soldiers, Irene Gut had no love for the Soviets. She had little reason to like the National Socialists either. After occupying Poland, they confiscated her home and forced the student-nurse to labor in a factory overseen by Wehrmacht Major Edward Rugemer. However, her “Germanic” features led to transfers, first to a luxury hotel catering to officers and then to Rugemer’s newly commandeered villa. Witnessing the SS sadistically murder a mother and her infant on the streets horrifies Gut, but it later motivates her to devise an unlikely plan to save the hotel’s Jewish slave labor, ahead of their liquidation.

Under the dark of night, uot smuggled her former co-workers into Rugemer’s villa, first hiding them in the cellar, before they eventually discover the hiding chamber specially constructed by the dispossessed Jewish owners. To avoid exposure, Gut promises Rugemer she can handle the household single-handedly, using her traumatic history with the Red Army as an excuse to keep soldiers out of the villa. Of course, that means she must cater his receptions on her own, but she will actually have quite a bit of help from the basement.

Archambault definitely brings out the thriller aspects of Gut’s story more than the Broadway production, which was presented as memory play, showcasing Tovah Feldshuh. Sophie Nelisse is also considerably younger than Feldshuh during the Broadway run. Feldshuh could probably draw the tourist buses, but Nelisse’s younger, more naïve look and slight frame leads to a greater sense of vulnerability.

In fact, Nelisse portrays Gut with tremendous sensitivity. Thanks to her, the audience really understands why she did what she did. (Frankly, her work in a key scene truly makes Irena’s Vow a “pro-life” film in both past and present contexts.) Yet, Dougray Scott really elevates Irena’s Vow, proving he can do more than sniff and sneer his way through a film, portraying sinister blue bloods. His performance as Rugemer (an intriguing historical figure) is as complex as Gordon’s treatment. Plus, Andrzej Seweryn adds a lot of color and energy as the sly and sophisticated old Shultz, the only other serving staff Gut allows inside the villa.

Vigil, Season Two, on Peacock

The British military has its own Royal Military Police for each brand of service, who in turn all have a Special Investigation Branch. Yet, for some reason, they keep outsourcing their murder investigations to the Police Service of Scotland. DCI Amy Silva’s first military-related assignment almost made sense, because the murder onboard a nuclear sub was the sort of “locked room” mystery that needed a specialized homicide detective. However, the terrorist attack that she investigates this time around must surely fall within the jurisdiction of the national investigative and intelligence services. Nevertheless, Silva ships out to a fictional marginally-western-inclined Middle East regime to sleuth out the deadly hijacking of military drones in season two of creator Tom Edge’s Vigil, which premieres tomorrow on Peacock.

Wudyan has made it clear to the Brits, if they do not sell advanced arms to the regime, they will turn towards Russia and China. Air Vice Marshal Marcus Grainger is happy to oblige. He organized a demo of the RAF’s latest R-PAS drones, but in an ugly twist, one of the drones goes rogue, fatally shooting seven enlisted soldiers.

Initially, the drone operator based in Scotland is blamed, but Silva (doing work better suited to MI5 or the NCA) determines the guilty operator was based in Wudyan, based on the signal amplitude. Suspicion then falls on the former Squadron Leader, until he too is murdered. Silva hates to leave behind her life and police partner DI Kirsten Longacre, especially during her advanced stage of pregnancy, but off to Wudyan she goes. It does seem rather questionable to keep a DCI assigned to a DI she is romantically involved and having a baby with, but this is Scotland.

Season one has plenty of credibility issues too, but the claustrophobic submarine greatly helped to power through them. Season two however, is just a trainwreck when it comes to believability. It is also openly hostile to the British military. Apparently, Edge and co-scripter George Aza-Selinger looked around the world, saw Assad razing Aleppo to the ground, Putin carpet-bombing Mariupol, Xi committing genocide in Xinjiang, and Iran executing a generation of young women for the crime of believing they have rights, only to conclude the greatest threat to global stability is overly hawkish RAF officers.

If you honestly believe that too, maybe you will enjoy season, because it is painfully obvious right from the start the ostensive terrorists are actually the good guys and the not-so secret bad guys are engineering a false flag operation from within the RAF. Anyone who argues that is a “spoiler” must be a complete idiot with zero intuition.

Last Passenger: Going Express

Driving is the American way to commute. It suddenly does not look so bad for a handful of Brits trapped on a runaway train. The end of the line looms ominously in Omid Nooshin’s surprisingly spry thriller Last Passenger (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Lewis Shaler tries to be a conscientious single father, but the demands of his emergency room practice often tax his young son Max’s patience. They are headed home from London on a redeye express, so Dr. Shaler can perform an emergency operation. At least they have a volunteer to help them pass the time. There might even be a halting attraction brewing between Shaler and the charming Ms. Sarah Barwell.

Unfortunately, events will interrupt them when Shaler starts to suspect something is amiss. Initially, nobody wants to get involved in matters like the disappearance of the porter. However, when the train starts blowing through scheduled station stops they quickly start to care. It turns out a mystery man has barricaded himself in the control room and disabled the emergency brakes. Of course, the outside authorities are slow to react, but it hardly matters. This is a diesel train, so there is nothing they can do to cut the power.

Perhaps transportation safety engineers could poke dozens of holes in Nooshin and Andrew Love’s screenplay, but its internal logic holds together pretty well for mere mortals. Obviously, there is a massive ticking clock counting down in the background, but the quiet moments work just as well. Nooshin vividly captures the eerily detached vibe of a late night train whooshing through nocturnal blackness. The mix of personality types and tics amongst Shaler’s fellow passengers also nicely follows in the tradition of great train suspense stories, going all the back to Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes.

Dougray Scott has become something of an overlooked leading man since the days of Ever After and MI: 2, but he anchors the film with understated strength and sensitivity. He definitely comes across as the sort of surgeon who would inspire confidence in patients. He also develops some relaxed but convincing chemistry with Kara Tointon’s Barwell. The supporting cast also feels right, particularly Iddo Goldberg (in a complete change of pace from Kat Coiro’s And While We Were Here) as an Eastern European immigrant transit worker.

Obviously, the question of who would do such a thing is hard to ignore, despite the narrative’s considerable tension. Nooshin & Love suggest (and never refute) a hypothesis that evades hot button ideological issues, but might be even more disturbing for what it implies regarding human nature. Regardless, they keep the train hurtling down the track. Frankly, there is something refreshingly old school about the smaller scope and corresponding emphasis on character. Recommended with unexpected affection for general thriller audiences, Last Passenger opens this Friday (4/25) in New York.