|
|
 |
| |
Bittersweet story of Bernie and a blind rabbi’s guide dog
SIXTY-SIX
Directed by Paul Weiland
Certificate 12A
THIS comedy has enough laughs to keep you amused, enough tragedy to keep you interested and some strong performances from the leading characters.
However, the ending is telegraphed in the first ten minutes of the movie and this means you know exactly what is coming next.
Little Bernie Rubens – played by newcomer Gregg Sulkin – is gearing up for the biggest day of his life. He is 13 and planning his Bar Mitzvah. But as well as it being the day he becomes a man and accepted as such by his faith, he believes it could be the day his friends and family actually pay him some attention for once.
Bernie is the forgotten member of the dysfunctional Rubens family. His mother Esther (Helena Bonham Carter) spends much of her life caring for her husband Manny (Eddie Marsan).
He has some serious issues and this lends to what could have been a straightforward comedy the air of a tragedy.
Poor Manny. Not only does he suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder, his younger brother Paul, with whom he is in business, is better looking, funnier and altogether a more popular boy. Manny’s life is not easy. His compulsions include a fear of stains – he eats his dinner in his underwear, lays a second carpet over the sitting room floor to stop the first one wearing out, puts plastic sheets over his sofas.
And life for the Rubens’ grocers is not looking good either. A supermarket opens next door and trade drops, forcing them to eventually sell up for a rock bottom price.
Good old Mrs Rubens stands by her man – we learn he swept her off her feet, quite literally, the night they met. Manny was a fine dancer and in one of the films many touching scenes we watch the pair sashay the night away.
Of course, it is all good in the end. Bernie’s Bar Mitzvah might not be quite what he expects, but it is one he will remember.
This film has marvellous production values. The producers have managed to re create the feel of the period, and that helps. The film at times has the air of a one-joke trick about it. It’s Bernie’s Bar Mitzvah, but it is on the day of the World Cup Final. And that is about it.
But the characters are likeable enough to keep you interested, and the feel of a north London suburb in the 1960s is carefully brought to life. It has echoes of the marvellous Jack Rosenthal drama, The Glory, Glory Game, and although at times the jokes are slightly laboured – the blind rabbi’s guide dog leaving deposits on the sitting room carpet – the tone is amiable enough and Bernie is a likeable fellow to make you want things to work out for him. |
 |
| |
|
|
|
