Blumenthal (Seth Fisher, 2013): USA

Reviewed by Laura Wyatt. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2013.

Before seeing this film I had a chance to sit in on a Q & A session with first time director Seth Fisher. In our 45 minutes together, he talked about the difficulties of making a movie, from raising the money, to finding a good crew who will work for next to nothing, to obtaining permits to shoot in the streets of New York City, and having to hurry shots because they were being kicked out of locations.

When you put all this together with him never having made a film before, I expected disaster, or a least a low-budget looking claustrophobic picture. But, from the opening credits I knew I was in for a treat.

The film opens with a long sequence shot from a low-lying camera on a dolly. It is following the white nurse shoes of a man rushing around the streets of New York. It’s fast paced and comical, and sets the tone for the rest of the movie.

We come to find a bit later that those white shoes belong to Ethan Blumenthal (director/writer Seth Fisher) who is a pharmaceutical sales rep, specializing in women’s reproductive medicines. He often tries to use that fact to “pay off” women with samples of his wares while he is in the process of discarding them for one reason or another. No woman is good enough for him.

Ethan is the nephew to Harold Blumenthal who has recently passed away. He wasn’t close to his uncle but Harold is the string that ties all the characters together in this story. Ethan’s father is Saul, who is remarried to his schiza (non-Jew) wife Sheryl and we quickly learn that Saul and Harold didn’t get along in the later years of life.

The movie focuses on the relationships these four people have and had with dead Harold whom we meet through past television interviews. He seems to be ever present in the home of his brother Saul. Since Harold has died, Saul has not be able to move his bowels and spends most of the film on the toilet. There is a brilliant seen where Saul is home alone on the toilet and the phone rings. The camera is stationary looking at the empty hallway when Saul comes waddling down the hall with his pants, underwear and belt hanging at his ankles. The camera never moves from the floor POV and as he talks on the phone the camera cuts to the face of Ethan on the other end of the phone. Back and forth go the edits from pants at ankles to Ethan and back again.

One of things that makes this film so fun, is great camera work and great dialog. They are both witty and observant and keep the pace of the film on high. The quick dialog between characters is refreshing. It’s not how people typically talk but it fits perfectly with Ethan’s often-heard inner thoughts. In one scene he is explaining to his non-Jewish friend, that he is Jewish and he has neurosis which he calls “Jewrosis”. It explains a lot about his character and his sense of self-deprecating humor.

This film deals with aging, family jealously and disfunction, loneliness and needing everything to be perfect, all relevant topics to most of us. The thing that keeps us watching and laughing is the dead pan delivery and the truth that Ethan speaks. It’s not always pretty but it can’t be denied. A wonderful effort for a first time director/writer.