Review of This Must Be the Place (2011) by Steven B — 17 Nov 2012

While it pains me to give a Sean Penn movie only three stars, that's the best I can do and I'm probably being generous. Not that the idea of a 50something Goth Death Rock Orthodox Jew chasing a Nazi war criminal (well, maybe only a Nazi with a poor sense of humor) is all that bad, but lordylou this was so slow it was hard to stay awake. Sean Penn is, as always, terrific as an 'Ozzy Osbourne' clone, but the story just drags along from Dublin to NYNY, to New Mexico, to Utah and back to Dublin. There are at least two side stories that never really get resolved and great performances along the way, but frankly we were pretty glad when this was over.

This was made a few years ago and released in 2011, but I suspect the distributor wasn't too excited about it. It seems to have been a major production by an international, mostly Italian, team but it just didn't really work.

This is an indie and you may not encounter it, but if you do, go ahead and pass.