DON VERDEAN Review
Jared Hess, the director of the light and slight religious farce that is DON VERDEAN, has always found himself comfortable in the leagues of the outsiders and weirdos of life. From the aggressively awkward stalwart that was NAPOLEON DYNAMITE to Jack Black as a man of God turned luchadore, Hess’s films have never lacked “character”, even if said characters could border on the ludicrous and annoying. Even so, with his 2015 entry into his pantheon of weirdos comes DON VERDEAN, a film that follows another weirdo, albeit one who is much more homely and less annoying than his other cinematic peers.
That weirdo (and honestly weirdo might be a little too strong) is the eponymous Don Verdean (Sam Rockwell), a man of science as well as God devoted to bringing physical proof of the existence of the the big man in the sky and other icons detailed in the Bible. As we discover in the film’s first minutes, Don experienced some success earlier in his archaeological career (especially among his religiously like minded constituents) with his exciting and captivating biblical finds. However, as with any “superstar”, the glow eventually fades away, and for Don this proves to be true as he currently finds himself relegated to small presentations/book signings in even smaller towns and their equally small churches. While he still has his followers, Don and his assistant Carol (Amy Ryan) begin to see the writing on the wall; in fact, Don has resorted to embellishing his most recent “discoveries”, such as shipping in a fake statue that supposedly was housed in the city of Sodom. Granted, the Danny McBride-esque pastor Tony Lazarus (Danny McBride) and his flock fail to notice the ruse, leading the pastor to hire Don and his crew (which also includes Jermaine Clement’s Boaz, a walking buffoon yearning to live in America) to find the skull of Goliath. Soon, Don finds himself entrenched in little white lies that soon become big problems as Don begins to really wonder if lying for the sake of instilling belief is worth it.
As it goes, the answer to Don’s predicament is a simple one obviously but for once in Hess’s filmography, the director and writer (with co-writing from Jerusha Hess) finally digs at some more mature material here, even if he does occasionally resort to his patented (if still amusing) awkward humor and retro aesthetics. With DON, Hess examines a man at a crossroads in his professional and personal life surrounded by a world that seems intent on corrupting everything he has ever believed in and he hoists it upon himself to be the man to show the light of God to all. As it is, Don is a good man who makes a couple of bad decisions and Rockwell (continuing to cement himself as the top “good ole southerner/mid-western aw shucks guy” performer) sells the man’s internal battle, even if his exterior is a little too plain and subdued, which is probably intentional as he (and Ryan’s) seem to be the only characters that are not eccentric in some way or form. That eccentricity, as always, rolls over into the director/writer’s visual tastes, as he always has an eye for capturing the weird and warm energy of any small town he comes across. Despite moments of comedic eccentricities, DON has its heart in the right place with the majority of our characters simply trying to do the right thing (except probably Boaz, who is just kind of a dick) even as Hess finds the moments to poke fun at the community he’s chosen to follow.
When Hess pivots over to his usual brand of awkward and droll comedy stylings, the results are solid if never over the top hilarious even though I did really enjoy the idea of Will Forte’s Satanist-turned-born-again-Christian rival pastor who, despite never playing too big a role in the grand scheme of the story, effectively plays a predatory (he hisses a lot) weirdo Christian. Indeed, most of the side characters and their performers do their job well, with standouts being the aforementioned Forte and Clement, whose cartoonish (and almost offensive) Boaz delivers most of the film’s funniest line deliveries (even though McBride challenges this statement at points).Outside of those moments, most of the humor is chuckle worthy and consistent and overall blend well enough with the small moments of seriousness that occur throughout the film. As a result, Hess’s film creates a story that stays true to itself as it winds down to its soft-hearted if slightly unearned conclusion that nonetheless further illustrates a tale of a good intentioned man who makes (and reckons) with his bad decisions.
While DON VERDEAN never quite captures the manic energy and charm of Hess’s previous works, it’s nice to see the director add some new bents to his occasionally wearisome material. If you’re in the hankering for a film about the humor found in the search for religious affirmation, you could do a lot worse than a movie that has Sam Rockwell rob the grave of a giant-headed dead guy.
3/5
