Movie Review: Treasure

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B

A flawed but very emotional film.

This film follows a 36-year-old Jewish-American woman in 1991. Her father was a Holocaust survivor, but had never talked about anything that happened before the family came to the U.S. The daughter decides to go to Poland to discover her family's roots. However, her father decides that he is going along. 

This movie mostly focuses on the relationship between the father and daughter. While some (though not all) of this family drama can be cliché, many of these scenes hit all the right emotional beats. Much of this is because of how likable these characters are despite their flaws and the great performances by Lena Dunham and Stephan Fry. They bring a strong sense of humanity to their characters here and this adds so much to every emotional scene. Though this is a fictional story that has to do with the Holocaust, the scenes involving the greatest tragedy in world history are done with the utmost respect and honesty. The scenes where the visit Auschwitz is so disturbing that it can be hard to watch. While it may not be pleasant it is the only way to handle this extremely dark chapter in human history. The emotions the father has as he is facing this horrible part of his past are truly powerful. It simply hard to watch some of these scenes without being swept over with emotion. 

However as effective as this film is it can be quite flawed. This movie tries to mix its emotional story with some comedy. However, most of this comedy falls completely flat. I barely laughed at any of the comedic scenes here. Even the few comedic moments that worked, felt at odds with the seriousness of the story. As great as the two main characters are the rest of the characters are rather bland and forgettable. Also, for such an emotional movie, the ending kind of feels too convenient and doesn't completely work.

This movie may have its flaws, but it also truly packs a strong emotional punch.