Review of The Believer (2001) by Moore S — 19 Mar 2011

I have mixed feelings about this movie. First of all, it looks as if it was American History X revisited. I'm sure this is also how it got the viewers' attention to begin with. Then we have Ryan Gosling, who always reminds me of Edward Norton at times.

And finally, the big conflict is the denial of Judaism. First of all, none of the characters are really convincing. Ryan Gosling is a great actor, but he was just not convincing enough when it came to speeches, even though his speeches were very well written.

Second of all, most of the characters had barely any purpose in the movie, since the main character seemed to develop on his own only based on the actions he did. At the same time, the idea of the movie was to not only show the inner struggle of Ryan Gosling's character, but also to reflect on how the society shapes him and as he balances in between two sides.

That idea has failed, because of the previously mentioned lack of secondary characters' affection. Ryan Gosling had better roles than this. On the better side though, the idea of struggle was very interesting.

Also, the confusion of the main character was really well shown, which earned the whatever rating I gave.