Treasure is the kind of film that gets in its own way. The contours of its story are affecting, and yet the filmmakers do not trust their audience. They cannot see the difference between sad and maudlin, a crucial error when the Holocaust is significant to the plot. Sure, the performances are affecting, with Stephen Fry in particular playing against type, and yet the performers are ultimately betrayed by what they are asked to do. Since the film is based on a true story, an actual experience by the writer Lily Brett, you would think its director and writers would understand the inherent poignance of its premise. You should not roll your eyes at a film like this, but thanks to some fundamental miscalculations, that reaction is inevitable.
The film takes place in Poland in 1991, immediately after the fall of the Soviet Union. Director and co-screenwriter Julia von Heinz does not have much interest the tumult of that period, and instead focuses on how Americans wade through it. Lena Dunham plays Ruthie, a neurotic journalist who wants to learn about her upbringing, and Fry plays her father, Edek. Traveling with family is always a risky proposition, and there is tension between the pair before they even leave the airport. He is aloof, not taking the trip seriously, and Ruthie cannot see how her father still has PTSD from his time in Auschwitz.
Almost every scene in Treasure is predictable. The dynamics between Ruthie and Edek are always familiar, right down to how she attempts to be serious while he uses humor as a coping mechanism. Edek sometimes has no alternative but to indulge Ruthie, since she does not speak Polish and he must translate. The best scenes involve Ruthie being disarmed, like when she stumbles into a flea market and buys wares out of guilt, or when she witnesses Edek confronting his past. Part of what makes the film so galling, even frustrating, is that the filmmakers do not let the material speak for itself. They cannot help but include a cloying score, telling you exactly how they want you to feel, when silence would be more powerful.
Another film released this year depicts the flaring of familial tensions during a trip to Auschwitz. At Sundance this January, Jesse Eisenberg premiered A Real Pain, a travelogue in which Eisenberg’s semi-autobiographical character and his cousin (Kieran Culkin) visit the concentration camps. It is the superior film, not just because it is better acted, but because Eisenberg has tact that frequently eludes van Heinz. When A Real Pain gets a wider release later in 2024, Culkin’s performance will be talked about as one of the year’s best. He plays a specific type, an aloof kind of guy who probably can be found in every family, and the particularness of his character makes him both individual and instantly recognizable. Treasure goes in the opposite direction. We have some sense of Ruthie and Edek as individuals, just not enough, because von Heinz wants to universalize their specific trauma.
Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street
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