HEARD THE ONE about the drug-smuggling rabbi? If Holy Rollersweren't ripped from a series of 1989 headlines, it could be the basis of an ancient punchline. There is, moreover, something visually absurd about watching Orthodox payot-sporting, rabbi-in- training Jesse Eisenberg acting as an Ecstasy mule just as the global house party is getting started.
It’s 1989 and young Brooklyn- based Hasid Sam Gold (Eisenberg) is studying the scriptures and looking forward to the marriage his family has arranged for him. An innocent, well-intentioned sort, Sam works for his father and finds even PG-rated courtship excruciating. Devastated when his bride-to-be’s family rejects him, he laments his modest prospects as a haberdasher’s son and turns to a roguish neighbour with a get-rich- quick scheme.
Yosef (twitchy Justin Bartha) is a fallen Hasid with dodgy associates and a shipment of “medicine” to pick up in Amsterdam. What better runner than someone who, like Sam, is naive enough to believe it really is medicine?
Our hero soon realises his mistake, but not before he’s charmed and intimidated by MDMA kingpin Jackie (Danny Abeckaser) and Rachel (Ari Graynor), the party girl on Jackie’s arm. Within months, the gang are flush and fully operational.
We're already familiar with Eisenberg's prowess when it comes to playing socially challenged malcontents. Director Kevin Asch's succinct, muted indie debut allows the actor to explore awkwardness only touched on in The Squid and the Whaleand The Social Network. Sam is a conflicted soul, and his insular, traditional upbringing is better suited for a life in Fiddler on the Roofthan dealing out of red light districts. Long before the net closes in, he's questioning the blandishments of moneyed, contemporary life.
The good boy gone to seed is an old story, here given a neat twist by the exoticism and anachronism of Sam’s faith. Antonio Macia’s uncluttered script mostly avoids the pitfalls of cultural tourism and keeps the story moving in determined, if predictable patterns.
What a shame that this neat crime drama got saddled with such a garish, goyish title.
