52 Films by Women Vol 4. 27. HOLY LANDS (Director: Amanda Sthers)
When it comes to turning a book into a film, an author is
not the best adaptor of their own work. A story that has reached its perfect
form in one version is then converted into a different form, a screenplay, and
then directed with actors. For Holy Lands, Amanda Sthers has taken
her 2010 epistolary novel written in French, written a screenplay in English
and directed the film, casting veteran movie star James Caan in the leading
role as Harry Rosenmerck, a Jewish American who has retired to Israel to raise
pigs much to the distaste and distrust of the local community – except for a
neighbour who sews a bandanna for a piglet rejected by its mother. The film
focuses on the unlikely friendship between Harry and the local rabbi, Moshe
Cattan (Tom Hollander) as Harry attracts the unwanted attention of a zealous
(Catholic?) priest who condemns him for being a squatter on Jesus’ property.
In telling the story through a series of letters, Sthers (pronounced
‘Esthers’) created a tapestry of opinions and reported incidents leaving the
reader to fill in the blanks. The form doesn’t lend itself easily to adaptation
because some letters aren’t answered. As a screenwriter, Sthers tells the story
in a different way through dialogue but jettisons some of the opinions held by
the characters. For example, in the novel, Harry’s ex-wife Monica (Rosanna
Arquette) hopes that Harry would come to one of his playwright son, David’s
first nights. She doesn’t express such a sentiment in the film. Harry has
rejected David (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) for his homosexuality. In the film, Harry
doesn’t discuss his homophobia, but it is clear that he enjoys nurturing the
weak abandoned piglet, whom he names Judas. You sense he would want a
grandchild and indeed he gets one, through his neurotic daughter, Annabelle
(Efrat Dor), who becomes pregnant during a visit to Israel. Whilst taking
photographs on a beach, the siren sounds and Annabelle retreats to a shelter.
The man who led her there kisses her and one thing leads to another.
David is an experimental playwright. His drama, about his
own relationship with his father, is interspersed with dance, a silent chorus
representing an elemental force, a tide of emotion. (The opening credits show
dancers in rehearsal.) In the centre of the stage is a huge tree, painted white
from its wide stump to its spreading leaves. Neither David nor Annabelle is as strongly
defined. David’s dolour centres less on his estrangement with his pop, rather
his inability to adopt. He is refused permission because of a perception that a
playwright offers an unstable home environment, especially when overseeing
productions of their work staged abroad. You would have thought that David
would have obtained support from his union. Instead, he sulks in his apartment,
alienating his partner.
There is a lot missing from the film. For example, David is
unconcerned by the reception to his play, which attracts a negative review.
Instead, Monica takes up the cause, confronting the reviewer in a restaurant.
The reviewer is glib. Monica is righteous. Then she apologises; she has cancer.
This tonal shift - a sudden realisation of how to behave decently even in
disagreement - is one of the few strong moments.
This scene encapsulates Sthers’ concern: how should we
behave when faced with a disappointment? Sthers would have made a more
emotionally engaging film if she had used this theme as an organising
principle. Disappointment can be the result of unrealistic expectations as well
as of injustice.
Sthers’ novel was comic; some of the humour survives. There
is an additional element that the visual medium is especially good at –
cuteness. On the page, I doubt if the piglet Judas (let’s call him male) was
cute. On screen, he is. In one scene,
Harry collects one of Moshe’s children from kindergarten – the others all have
chicken pox. The child does not acknowledge Harry, putting him in an awkward
predicament. Then he sees Judas in the passenger seat and changes his mind.
When Moshe calls on Harry for the first time, he ends up in
pig poop. Moshe’s objections are on religious grounds. Previously he had
written to Harry. We see him at home drafting a follow up letter, which Moshe
attempts to pass off as his third. He is trying to be clever, to get Harry to
search for the missing second letter. To Harry, Moshe on his moped cuts a
fairly ridiculous figure. But when Harry visits Moshe’s house and spends the
night sleeping in the lower bunk bed of the children’s room, he warms up.
Later, he asks Moshe, ‘I know how you declare love. How do you declare
friendship?’
Annabelle barely registers as a character. She is studying
in Brussels and attends ‘child therapy’ even though she is 30. Efrat Dor doesn’t really portray arrested
development; Annabelle doesn’t have the scenes that define her neurosis. We
know she takes photographs and has an awkward conversation with an Israeli
border guard who reminds her that the wall is there for the purposes of
survival. She gets a slap from her father for not getting in touch. Is single
motherhood really an answer? It isn’t enough to lure Harry back to the States
for the birth.
Next to Caan, Arquette has the most screen time. Monica
discovers she has a year to live and spends it taking selfies in the park,
watching old-fashioned 3D movies (well, one) with her daughter and getting
together with her doctor (Patrick Bruel, Sthers’ ex-husband). Arquette hasn’t
opted for cosmetic surgery; instead her face is transitioning into late middle
age without the ‘experience’ lines. She has always had an undefined screen
persona. Although sometimes cast as spunky (young-looking but defiant), she is for
the most part unconfident. In The Whole Nine Yards, she adopted a
fake French Canadian accent which was as conspicuous as lipstick on the collar.
I couldn’t believe in her and hadn’t seen her in a movie for almost twenty
years. As an actress, I still don’t know what she is capable of.
If Holy Lands is remembered at all, it
will be for the Caan-Hollander show, two people who exist in different movie
universes. Caan will always be Sonny Corleone from The Godfather or Jonathan
E from Rollerball or Paul Sheldon from Misery tortured by his
biggest fan or Buddy’s curmudgeonly father from Elf. Until he showed up
in Out
of Blue, I wasn’t sure he was still acting. You don’t see his name
above the title in a studio picture any more, unlike his contemporary Robert de
Niro. Then again, he chooses projects like Undercover Grandpa. Who represents
him – Piddles the Monkey? Hollander has made his name on British television in
series such as Rev, Taboo, The Night Manager and Baptiste.
He is the guy who turns up to deliver some – very – bad – news, usually slowly.
He is rarely the protagonist. You can imagine the pre-production period. ‘I
can’t give him bad news, he’s Jimmy freaking Caan’. ‘Don’t worry – you can sit
on a beach together, both of you wearing a face pack.’ ‘Well, sign me up,
Amanda.’ ‘Watch out, though – he might slip you a copy of Undercover Grandpa.’ The reach across a cultural divide is
something to see. Their best scene together involves Moshe giving Harry a lift
to a church to confront the freaky priest over a crime against cuteness. Harry
starts battering the pew then has a heart attack. Moshe hesitates. The church -
it’s not his faith. Then he behaves like a human being.
Holy Lands is a bit like one of those inspiring ensemble movies
that covers death, birth and coming to terms with stuff. It even has that hoary
cliché – the hidden study in which Harry has posted a bunch of press cuttings
about David. Their relationship really eludes Sthers. She doesn’t trust herself
to portray a conversation between them and so doesn’t. Gay viewers might leave
the movie saying ‘holy crap.’
Reviewed at JW3,
Finchley Road, North West London, Tuesday 16 April 2019, 18:00 screening
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