by Len Weiler
Treasure is a new film which just opened in theaters last week. I saw it shortly before its release at the Tribeca Film Festival. It’s billed as a comedy/drama, but I'd call it a melodramedy. It’s about a trip through Poland by a father (Stephen Fry) and daughter (Lena Dunham) – a journey instigated by the daughter, Ruth, who is trying to unearth her holocaust survivor parents’ origins and what actually happened to them before they emigrated to the U.S. Her overbearing father, Edek, comes along, ostensibly to protect her from antisemitic ruffians, but in reality to try and protect her from learning
too much about the disturbing past. It’s a history of loss and deep personal trauma for Edek, one he has tried to bury through an exuberant cheeriness and bonhomie for all of Ruth’s life.
With high expectations, I added the screening of Treasure to my film festival schedule because I’ve admired both lead actors in the past. I liked Dunham in her first film Tiny Houses (2010) which she wrote and directed, and in several episodes of the series Girls, which she also created, starred in and largely co-wrote; and I’ve been a huge fan of Fry since the second season of the hilarious British series Blackadder [“Blackadder II”] in 1986; as well as the popular Jeeves and Wooster series (1990-93), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), Wilde (1997), and Gosford Park (2001), not to mention his many plummy stints as a narrator.
The screenplay is based on novelist Lily Brett’s 1999 novel
Too Many Men. Both of Brett’s parents were Holocaust survivors. Their wartime traumas and her experience as their daughter were, she says, major influences on the story, although it is fictional. The book is about a similar father-daughter journey, in which the father was 81 and the daughter 43. Fry is 66 but made to look older, while Dunham, 38, seems about right for Ruth, as
Treasure is set in 1991. (Both actors have a Jewish background, by the way: Fry’s maternal grandparents were Hungarian Jews, and Dunham’s mother is Jewish.)
Edek and Ruth travel to Edek’s hometown of Lodz where his prosperous family owned a large factory. Surprisingly, for me at least, the factory buildings, although partially abandoned, are still standing forty-six years after the war, and his former family home has survived as well. In fact, although the place had not been kept up over the years, a family of rather impoverished Poles are still living there. It turns out it’s the same family that moved in when Edek’s family was forcibly removed to the Lodz ghetto in 1941, before being sent to Auschwitz. Eventually Edek and Ruth travel to Auschwitz too. They travel by taxi, because Edek considers this classier than public transit such as the train that Ruth would have preferred. I only mention this because that decision allows us to enjoy the lovely performance of the veteran Polish actor Zbigniew Zamachowski [
Three Colors: Blue (1993),
Red (1994) and
White (1994)] as the cabbie.
How is this a comedy? Much of the story is about the largely dysfunctional dynamics between bigger than life, goofily ebullient Edek and the dour, angry, disapproving Ruth. Fry is surprisingly convincing as a sort of upbeat, upscale, eccentric Tevya-like character, with a mostly credible Eastern European accent. His Edek is a man who wants to believe that the horrors of the past are best left buried. Focusing on them them can only bring pain; it’s far better to just enjoy life in the present. Fry can’t help being funny in such a role. If anything he overdoes it. Ruth, on the other hand, is not happy in the present and hopes to find meaning in digging up the past – if only to try and understand her father and herself. What she actually experiences is outrage and anger, some of which is directed at the Poles, but much is aimed at her dad for not reacting similarly. After all, the terrible things she learns about actually happened to HIM and his family – dispossession of property and wealth, death of loved ones, incomprehensible personal hardship. Why won't he get as angry as she is? Dunham carries this off well, but although we have sympathy for her character as she reacts to the history she is uncovering, she is not very likeable.
One of my criticisms of
Treasure is the way Ruth’s part is written – it’s as if she embarked on her voyage of discovery with only the most superficial knowledge of the kinds of things that happened to people like her father and his family. Yet she is an educated person, a music journalist living in New York City - a bio that suggests she's reasonably sophisticated, someone we'd expect to be at least moderately well-informed. Similarly, it's hard to accept that Edek could really believe he'd be able to steer Ruth away from learning anything about those evil days during the war – even though a quest for exactly that information is the whole point of the trip for her. Edek is an intelligent man, but emotionally his part is underwritten. Only belatedly, at the very end of the picture, does he begin to come to terms with the great tragedies in his life and to recognize how, by closing the door on his deep feelings of loss, he has caused his relationship with his daughter to become so strained. A little more self-reflection and insight would have added some needed depth to the movie and given Fry, Dunham and we viewers something more meaningful to chew on. As it is, I sometimes had the feeling that Ruth and Edek hardly knew one another, even though they both have lived in New York for most of Ruth’s life. Even so, taken individually, I have to give both actors some credit: there’s something indelible in each of their performances.
Despite the above criticism, the movie still has something to offer. With nice performances, a dash of charm, a pinch of cornball sentiment and a cup of good intentions,
Treasure is a pleasant, enjoyable, entertaining movie. In its attempt to cross comedy with holocaust related tragedy, it reminds me a little of the mostly comedic
Life is Beautiful from 1997. And happily, this picture doesn’t go off the rails like that film did with its late shift to pathos. Eventually,
Treasure even provides an uplifting, feel-good resolution. This may be why the movie has a quite high audience score of over 90% on
RottenTomatoes.com, despite a rather low critical score of just 40%.
1 hour 51 minutes Rated R “for some language”
Grade: B
In wide theatrical release in select markets. The film's streaming release date has not been announced, but is rumored to be fairly soon.
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