Review of The Believer (2001) by Troy M — 26 May 2008

Wow. "Caveat viewor," let the viewer beware. Not for everyone. The depictions of hate, desecrations of sacred things and places, and the language are very, very difficult to watch. Danny Balint (excellently and frighteningly by Ryan Gosling, that nice young man from "The Notebook," who knew?) is a disaffected Jewish man who buries his heritage and becomes an up-and-coming "true believer" in the New York anti-Semitic scene. This is supposed to be based on a true story from the '60s.

This film deals with Balint's youthful religious difficulties through flashbacks and crashes anti-Jewish arguments of this and earlier ages against the Jewish community in which Balint practices his particularly violent brand of anti-Semitism. But Balint is worse than just a thug; he's also a persuasive speaker with intellectual tendencies who is capable of spreading his toxic ideas. He hates God and he hates himself. That is what ultimately makes his efforts at reconciling what he believes to the fundamental existential questions interesting. And it saves the film from being simply ugly and unbearable. There is a sort of redemption in all this pain.