Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Adam Resurrected Blu-ray Movie Review

A man who was a dog meets a dog who was a boy.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater October 2, 2009

As a genre, Holocaust dramas are tricky. Not only do actors and directors feel beholden to show appropriate reverence for the material, but in the wrong hands, stories of dignity and courage can dissolve in syrupy sentiment or harden into black and white morality plays. Case in point, for every Schindler’s List there’s one Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. The subject matter lends itself to specific conventions—a sober visual look, a tone of sadness commingling with fortitude, a restrained directorial style—and to a certain extent you know exactly what to expect when watching a film about the Holocaust. Adam Resurrected, then, comes as a bit of a shocker. Based on a novel by Israeli author Yoram Kaniuk, a novel born of the same satiric sense as Catch-22 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the film trades the expected grief of its genre for a reactionary look at history that’s almost absurdist in tone.

There's a good dog.

Director Paul Schrader is no stranger to adaptations, having previously handled screenwriting duties for Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, and his own Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, one of my favorite films. Here, he’s working from a screenplay by Noah Stollman, and after a string of less-than-compelling movies—including the atrociously aborted Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist—it’s good to see him tackling more literary material once again. Adam Resurrected has scope and ambition, and though the results are mixed, Schrader has at least created a film that defies convention and definition.

Set in 1961 Isreal, at the fictional Seizling Institute, a sanitarium for Holocaust survivors—the whole film is entirely fictional, by the way—the film centers on Adam Stein (Jeff Goldblum), a former circus performer who, like Jack Nicholson in Cuckoo’s Nest, has the run of the place, thanks to preferential treatment from the asylum’s administrator, Dr. Gross (Derek Jacobi). Adam has certain talents—the ability to bleed on command, give himself diseases, and stop his own heart—which make him a prime case for the inquisitive doctor. Other patients see him as an almost messianic figure, someone who has come to save them. He whisks around the hospital with an air of old-fashioned showmanship, but at heart he’s a far more tragic character. Through flashbacks we follow him through his cabaret act in the 1920s and his circus show during the late ‘30s, which is shut down by the Nazis because Adam is a Jew. Later, Adam is separated from his family at the Stellring extermination camp—also fictional—where he’s “rescued” by Commandant Klein (Willem Defoe), a Nazi commander who had once seen Adam’s act. Klein forces Adam to be his pet dog, ordering him to live on all fours and act as his own personal canine jester. Meanwhile, at the asylum, Adam discovers Dr. Gross’ newest pet patient, a feral boy (Tudor Rapiteanu) who grew up chained in a basement and now believes he’s a dog.

As a central conceit, “the man who was a dog meets a dog who was a boy” seems a little farfetched, and the connection between Adam and the boy, whom Adam christens “David”—the biblical descendant of Adam—is the weakest link in the story’s narrative chain. Along with survivor’s guilt, Adam suffers from latent Stockholm syndrome concerning Commandant Klein, which results in a relationship with David that is alternately nurturing and competitive, with Adam lapsing occasionally into “top dog” mode. As their bond is confusing and, at the very least, emotionally vague, the payoff at the ending seems forced and unearned. More interesting is Adam’s psycho-sexual relationship with Head Nurse Gina Grey (Ayelet Zurer), who rolls over and yelps to turn Adam on before they literally do it “doggy style.” If it seems a bit much, it probably is, but Schrader has just enough gall to pull it off without seeming exploitive or gratuitous (the sex is only implied, by the way).

Thematically, the story hits its only real nerve when the Jewish characters question God’s providence over the events of the Holocaust. There are definite echoes of the biblical Job story, where God allows Satan to strip Job of his wealth, family, and health—basically in a test of Job’s faithfulness. When Job has the impudence to ask God why these tragedies have befallen him, God replies—and I’m paraphrasing here—“Who are you to question me?” There’s an affecting moment in the film when Adam commands his fellow asylum inmates to pull down their sleeves—showing their numerical prison tattoos—and lift their fists toward heaven to rail against God’s seeming unjustness. When Adam runs into the desert and screams “show me yourself” into the night sky, he’s met by the cold indifference of the stars, an image that would’ve made a powerful ending. Instead, Adam then has a literal and overwrought “burning bush” experience, where he confronts the demon/specter/psychological manifestation of Commandant Klein that he’s been carrying inside him since the end of the war.

On a technical level, the film is excellent. Schrader departs from his classic Hollywood style here to use subtle, well-implemented shaky-cam cinematography, which he says adds a “slight vibrato” to the image. The performances from the largely German and Israeli cast are also solid, especially Joachim Król as Adam’s roommate Abe Wolfowitz. Willem Defoe is suitably creepy, but it’s Jeff Goldblum who impresses most in his manic portrayal of a vaudevillian gone mad. Sure, his German-Jewish accent slips here and there, but this seems like a role that was tailor fit specifically for him. Unfortunately, the film as a whole feels just as schizophrenic as some of the Seizling Institute’s patients. There are some interesting ideas at play in Adam Resurrected, and it’s commendable for not falling in line with the steady march of other Holocaust dramas, but it never comes together in a definitive vision.

Adam Resurrected Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

After very limited theatrical engagements, Adam Resurrected is reborn on Blu-ray with a beautiful and detailed 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer. My most immediate response was to the film's color palette. The scenes in the asylum have a cold warmth, if that makes sense, rich in somber greens and concrete grays. The tones are strong, yet restrained, giving a look that's just stylized enough to remind us that this is all a fiction. As Schrader moves through different time periods he approximates the style of each era's film stocks, shooting the WWII segments in stunning, high contrast black and white, and then moving into an Ektachrome, almost Technicolor look for the scenes in late-1950s Haifa. Black levels are finely tuned through much of the film, and contrast tends to be slightly overheated, which fits the somewhat unreal look to which the cinematography aspires. As the film is shot largely with handheld and steadicam-mounted cameras, focus sometimes drifts, but overall the image is sharp, exhibiting fine detail in both close-ups—you'll make out every pore on Goldblum's iconic schnauz—and longer shots, which are nicely resolved. Finally, the image is overlaid with a pleasing dispersion of grain that gives the picture a warm, filmic texture. The film fits comfortably on a 25 GB platter, and I didn't notice any pesky compression issues.

Adam Resurrected Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

More restrained than the color palette is the film's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, which nonetheless impresses by being clear and precise. There's not much, audio-wise, for this track to get worked up about—no explosions or gunplay, no big cross-channel pans or swooping front-to-back effects—but it handles Goldblum's chatty dialogue with aplomb. More so, the acoustics of each room have a keen and noticeable effect on the timbre of the characters' voices. As the asylum is basically a concrete, Bauhaus sepulcher, dialogue here is carried with a tinge of reverb. Sound effects—like the clacking of Nurse Grey's heels through the corridors, the slamming of doors, and the clinking of silverware—carry a convincing presence, and though the rear channels aren't incredibly active, you'll notice environment-establishing ambience throughout, if you listen close enough. Though it rarely makes full use of it, the track has a strong range, and I was even surprised by some healthy LFE rumble from time to time. Hairs most definitely won't be raised on the arms of audiophiles worldwide, but Adam Resurrected sounds great for a talky drama.

Adam Resurrected Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Commentary by Director Paul Schrader
"I like this film, I think it's a good film, but it's [from] a great novel," says Schrader, who laments the impossibility of encapsulating the immensity of the book in film, which he calls a "reductive medium." So starts Paul Schrader's excellent commentary track for Adam Resurrected, a monologue filled with very specific details about the more technical aspects of filmmaking. If film stocks, editing techniques, and cinematography aesthetics aren't really your thing, you might want to skip this track. If you're a student of film, however, Schrader has cinematic wisdom in spades.

Behind the Scenes (SD, 24:01)
I enjoyed watching this "making of" documentary, which features on-set footage, clips from the film, and interviews with all the key players of the multi-national production. Jeff Goldblum tones down his showmanship to discuss the necessity of doing the material justice, and Paul Schrader discusses how he changed up his usual visual style to differentiate this film from other Holocaust dramas. Well worth watching.

Deleted Scenes (SD, 9:32)
There are about seven deleted scenes here, the most interesting of which features Adam hiding Commandant Klein in his attic after war, teaching him how to be Jewish so he can hide from the war crimes tribunals.

Haifa International Film Festival Panel Discussion (SD, 1:11:58)
Paul Schrader, writer Yoram Kaniuk, and producer Ehud Bleiberg take questions from a moderator, and discuss the process of adapting the book, the difficulties inherent in the production, and the thematic content that differentiates Adam Resurrected from other, more reverential Holocaust films. There's definitely an interesting dialogue taking place here, but it gets a little long-winded at times, especially considering the panel is presented entirely unedited.

Adam Resurrected Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Adam Resurrected is one of those films that, if it were a little bit weirder, a little more manic, might have been destined to become a cult classic. It's certainly an original take on the often-predictable Holocaust drama, but the film just doesn't coalesce into something greater than the sum of its quirky parts. Still, the film gets a winning presentation on Blu-ray, and I have no trouble recommending it for a rental.