MOVIE REVIEW
“Don Verdean”
Grade: B+
Starring Sam Rockwell, Danny McBride and Jemaine Clement. Directed by Jared Hess.
Rated PG-13 for crude and suggestive content, some language and brief violence. Check listings for theaters. 1 hour, 30 minutes.
Bottom line: A biting religious satire that's is laugh-out-loud funny
“Napoleon Dynamite” filmmaking duo, husband-wife team Jared and Jerusha Hess, have delivered yet another hilariously absurd film in “Don Verdean.” It’s a biting religious satire, complicated by the fact that the Hesses themselves are Mormon, a religion that’s been subject to plenty of skepticism and scorn. But perhaps their closeness to religion is what allows them to knowingly skewer the sometimes outrageous showmanship of ritual. It’s the pomp and circumstance of religious posturing that’s put on trial in “Don Verdean,” and what matters in the end is faith in oneself, and fellowship between one another. But the ride along the way is laugh-out-loud funny, bolstered by a team of top-level comedic talent.
Sam Rockwell plays the titular Don Verdean, a washed up “biblical archaeologist.” Long past his heyday, his work has been called into question, but Don refuses to give up the ghost. His luck turns around when fast-talking pastor Tony Lazarus (Danny McBride) hires Don to dig up more biblical artifacts in order to attract crowds to his church, and away from rival Pastor Fontaine (Will Forte). Money hungry Don enlists his trusty, trusting research assistant Carol (Amy Ryan), and his shady Israeli connection Boaz (Jemaine Clement), and together, they produce objects of dubious origin to delight Lazarus’ masses.
The real humor in the film comes from the outrageous yarns that Don and Lazarus spin in order to make the artifacts seem legitimate. That lumpen pillar of salt? Lot’s wife, naturally. Even Boaz gets in on the action, spicing up the tall tales with claims of al-Qaida gangs pursuing them all over the Israeli desert. The duo even go so far as to stage a wild, “Indiana Jones”-style archaeological dig for a wealthy Chinese billionaire, with disastrous results.
Competition as a corrupting force is at the heart of the matter in “Don Verdean.” It’s not that any of the characters necessarily have bad intentions, just that their greed and pride cause them to do dishonest things, which doesn’t end well. Ultimately, for a film that pokes fun at extreme religious posturing, trying to find meaning in meaningless objects, it gets back to the inherent values of love and honesty of which the saints, prophets and messiahs have spoken. So maybe “Don Verdean” isn’t so satirical at all, but a righting of the ship back toward what matters most. It certainly helps that it’s an absurdist laugh riot to boot.
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