Don Verdean

One of the most magical summers that i can remember, was not in my young teenage years. It was the summer of 2004, when a film changed my life completely. I did not even know what the film was about, but that summer, me and my old friend Christian rented a film we never heard of, called Napoleon Dynamite. I remember how we both laughed, a lot, and just loved the film for being so strange. The story is very simple, Napoleon Dynamite, a school nerd who loves drawing and hate his Uncle Rico, fall in love with a student, so he begin to train for the school show, with his special dance moves. I have seen Napoleon Dynamite more than 10 times, and i still laugh almost as much as i did back then. There are not many comedies i can say have managed to make me laugh, so this film is very unique. Director Jared Hess made an icon film, and managed to make the characters so unique, that not many films had a chance to be as good as this one turned out to be. After the success of Napoleon Dynamite, director Jared Hess mad his next film Nacho Libre, with Jack Black as an mexican wrestler. It was a funny film, but not on the same level of Napoleon Dynamite. 3 years after Nacho Libre, Jared Hess returned to the nerd genre with a very unique film called Gentlemen Broncos. I loved this film, even if it was a major failure at the box office, and i wish more people would have seen it.I suggest that you buy Gentlemen Broncos on dvd, it is one of those films that needs to be in your dvd collection, because it is an very odd film. Since director Jared Hess had to deal with the situation of his box office failure, he took a long break. He worked on other projects, during the time he was thinking about his next film. It would take 5 years, before we found out that the next film would be a film called Don Verdean. Since i have always been a fan of director Jared Hess, i was of course excited, just to see what he could be doing in his latest film. In the cast we see both Sam Rockwell and Jemaine Clement, who both were in Gentlemen Broncos. Not knowing much at all about this film, i just had to see if Jared Hess have made another wonderful film. Is this the best film since his classic Napolen Dynamite, or is this a completely wrong step for this legendary director ?

Don Verdean ( Sam Rockwell ) is an archaeologist, who belive he have found many great items and lost treasures in Israel. Unfortunately, some people see him as a scam artist, that he actually have not discovered anything great at all. His personal secretary Carol ( Amy Ryan ) is always on his side, no matter how bad things are looking. Don is ready to take a break, not finding much work coming his way, until Carol is contacted by preacher Tony Lazarus ( Danny McBride ), he belive that Don Verdean could save him and his congregation, if he could deliver one of his recent big findings, an enormous stone statue, that is said to be from the biblical era. Don contact his Israel companion Boaz ( Jemaine Clement ) to make sure the statue is delivered to America. Boaz promise to arrange this. As the stone statue arrives to Tony Lazarus congregation, they notice that the statue looks different, more lika a transexual, than a woman. Don is furious, and call Boaz asking what he have done. Boaz is not sure where they actually seen the statue. But the congregation still see this statue as holy, a part from Pastor Fontaine ( Will Forte ), he belive Don Verdean is a scam artist, and intend to prove it. Tony feel the joy over this finding, and suggest that they pay for Don to go down to Israel, to find the skull of Goliath. Don accept the mission, as he belive that he can locate the skull. But problems with police, stops his plans from digging at a chosen location. To make sure he does not come home empty handed, Don steals a skull from a grave, and make it look like it could be the skull of Goliath. He goes back to America, hoping that he can finally be recognized as the great archaeologist, but can he hide from the truth ?

I love seeing this cast, where Jemaine Clement return to another film of Jared Hess, since he was brilliant in Gentlemen Broncos. We also have Sam Rockwell, Amy Ryan, Danny McBride, Will Forte included in the cast. With so many great names, and a wonderful director making another film, i was really hoping that Don Verdean would turn out to be almost as good as Jared Hess previous films. Unfortunately, i can´t say that i find this film to be very funny. On the other hand, this is a completely different film from Jared Hess, so you have to look outside the comfort zone. Don Verdean is more of a drama comedy, with a much more dramatic tone than we have seen director Jared Hess do before. So let´s try and explain what Don Verdean is. This is sort of a look on christianity, mixed with archeology, and where we stand on what to belive in. You could also say that the character Don Verdean is also some kind of Ulf Ekman, from the church of Livets Ord. A scam artist, since he took money from the congregation. Don Verdean may not have stolen money, but he tries to make himself famous on fake archeology, so he can be seen as a scam artist also. This is actually the most interesting part of this film, where we find out that everything Don Verdean does is fake, while he tries to convince people he always tell the truth. Sam Rockwell as the lead character Don Verdean, feels like a good choice, because he is a great actor of making different characters. Another character i really enjoy in this film, is Don Verdean´s personal secretary Carol, played by Amy Ryan. She is one of the strongest characters here, where you feel sorry for her, being used to help Don everyhwere he goes. Jemaine Clement may not be as good as he usually is, but still you can´t help laughing at his jewish american accent. Danny McBride does a great job as preacher Tony Lazarus, who dream of becoming famous with the help of Don Verdean´s archeology findings. Of course, things go terribly wrong, so you never know how Don Verdean will solve this mess. Even if i don´t find this film to be very funny, i still feel that it is an interesting view on scam artists, especially when it comes to church. There are so many out there in today´s society, and Don Verdean manage to show how scam artists work, in order to be respected for the wrong reason. Not the great Jared Hess comeback i was hoping for, but i still enjoy this simple story. Lesson learned people, never trust a greedy preacher, or any scam artist at all, just stick to bible reading, and enjoy some Ron De Jeremy Rum. Sounds like i will be busy this friday.

Rating: DDD