The ecstasy and the agony
‘Holy Rollers’ offers a trip to the dark side; ‘Prince of Persia’ just wants to steal your wallet
By Carl Kozlowski 05/27/2010
Picture a drug dealer and you’ll likely think of some thugged-out dude standing on a corner in the ghetto, or a guy with too much money and not enough class to spend it on the right things.
In fact, the very last type of person that might come to mind is a Hasidic Jew, the kind of guy who keeps his hair in ringlets and wears a wide-brimmed hat to match his black suit and carries around a Torah.
But in the mid-1990s, one of the biggest drug-smuggling operations in the world involved Hasidic Jews in their 20s, who imported more than 1 million tablets of ecstasy into the US from Amsterdam for an Israel-based dealer. The film “Holy Rollers” depicts that unlikely story through several fictional characters based on the real-life players, and the result is a compelling and gritty tale that skillfully evokes the dueling worlds tugging at the mind and spirit of a simple young man named Sam Gold (Jesse Eisenberg).
Sam is culturally walled-off from the outside world, yet he’s astute enough to know that he’s missing out on the wild times available to others his age. He wants to fit in, to have a “normal” life and to make money rather than struggling for every penny, like his fabric-salesman father.
Sam’s big shot at success comes when he gets a little too close to Yosef (Justin Bartha), the older brother of Sam’s best friend, Leon, who’s always got a wicked glint in his eye, a fun-loving smirk and a willingness to swear and talk about ladies in lusty fashion. Yosef also has a stunning Rolex watch, a fact that lures Sam into temptation when Yosef asks him if he’d like to make more money just after Sam’s poverty causes him to be rejected by the family of the girl he hoped to marry.
These simple, universally relatable frustrations are key to the audience’s sympathy for Sam as he decides to dive into working for Yosef and Yosef’s boss, a mysterious Israeli named Jackie (Danny A. Abeckaser, who also produced the film). Before long, Sam is raking in so much money he barely knows where to hide it. He’s also wearing designer sneakers and training other Hasidic young adults into following his footsteps in the smuggling trade. But even as his personal fortunes are rising, his family, neighbors and temple members are getting suspicious, throwing his world off kilter.
“Holy Rollers” is obviously a low-budget movie, featuring no gunfights or car chases. But it more than makes up for the lack of visual action with an excellent sense of Sam’s growing paranoia and fear, its ability to place the viewer in Sam’s shoes as things spin out of control and its intimate view of Hasidic culture that’s rarely explored in film.
If you’re in the mood for a nerve-jangling exploration of unusual cultures, “Holy Rollers” does the trick.
Unfortunately, one movie that doesn’t succeed on nearly any level is this weekend’s big-budget blockbuster “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal in his first attempt at a fun popcorn picture in a career rooted in politically themed films. “Persia” is based on a video game, and feels like it almost from first frame to last, due mainly to its characters’ nonstop flying, jumping and fighting at the expense of any sense of plot or logic.
Gyllenhaal may be buffed-out for the role, but with his giant doe eyes and constant smirk, it’s impossible to take him seriously.
At least he’s spared the indignity of giving the film’s worst performance, an “honor” that falls to once-great Ben Kingsley, who shows up as the head villain, delivering a performance that seems to be channeling Liberace.
Seriously, this is a film that should get his Oscar for “Gandhi” revoked.
If you want to have your senses assaulted for two mind-numbing hours of interchangeable villains, laughably expository writing, crappy acting and the fakest-looking castle sets this side of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” “Prince of Persia” fills the bill. All others should see something else — anything else.
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