Don Verdean

Jemaine Clement and Sam Rockwell as Don Verdean

Jared Hess' Don Verdean is a nice little satire that was met with supreme public indifference and critical ridicule. Yet, I found it was better constructed and more amusing than most American comedies. I cannot claim any great talent in Hess, but he has a consistent viewpoint and a gentle vision of our day and age that is reflected in his characters' spiritual quests. Don Verdean's title character is a huckster, a self-described archaeologist who peddles bogus Christian relics. By movie's end he has been incarcerated for his cons, but is spurred onto spiritual regeneration by guiding a fellow inmate, the son of a beloved.

Richard Brody, in an interesting review of this much maligned flick, casts the film as a bitter rejection of the "commercialization and instrumentalization of Christian faith." Yet, Hess is more Irvin S. Cobb than Sinclair Lewis. I think it is nice that Brody is taking Hess seriously as an artist, but I think he is taking him way too seriously. Hess pokes fun at the various evangelicals in the film, but there is also affection for them; which reminds me of John Waters. Like Waters, Hess uses B movie conventions and techniques not for bravura effect or august statements, but to tip off his audience that they are watching a show, a diversion put on by players. Like Waters, Hess gives his actors ample room to play.

Don Verdean provides some of our better comic actors a chance to chew on some bizarre and pungent dialogue. It heartened me to hear Sam Rockwell call out "sally forth" as if he were a Mountie in a 30s musical. With the success of Three Billboards..., he is now getting his just accolades. Jemaine Clement has the audacity of Peter Sellers. His run of the last few years, particularly in What We Do in the Shadows and Legion, stamps him as one of the most versatile comic talents of our time. Amy Ryan, Leslie Bibb and Danny McBride all have nice bits in a movie that has a sweet ensemble feel to it.

Brody ends his appraisal of Don Verdean by comparing the film to Kierkegaard and Bresson. This will draw snickers and I am ambivalent about such comparisons. Don Verdean is small scale satire and does not need to be laden down with cultural baggage. However, there is a Christian Existentialist whose life and work also dovetails with the film. This author went to prison before finding redemption and producing his greatest work. Dostoyevsky's work contains a dark humor that often escapes 21st century readers. Hess' morality play does not have the scale or depth of tortured Fyodor, but, piling that cultural baggage on, he could be our Gogol. (2/11/18)