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When we first see the character of Danny Balint (Gosling)
he’s coolly stalking a young Hasidic student on a New York
subway. We’ve already noticed his crisply shaved dome and
seen his bright red swastika shirt, so when he attacks we’re
not surprised. After beating his prey to the ground he tauntingly
pleads with him to fight back. Later we learn that Danny is
actually a Jew himself.
When this seemingly impossible contradiction is brought up
to him by a reporter who infiltrated a fascist meeting where
Danny had eloquently suggested a plot to start randomly killing
Jews, Danny reacts violently, pulling out a gun and threatening
to kill himself if the reporter publishes his story. It’s
not that he really identifies with the thuggish skinheads
he pals around with, but rather that he is so ashamed by what
he sees as the cowardice of his people, that his self-loathing
necessitates such a persona.
We see flashbacks of a young Danny quarreling with his religious
instructor over the story of Abraham and Isaac. Danny, who
views this tale as proof of God’s cruelty, is furious with
what he sees as the Jews’ inherent nihilism. And although
he claims to only want to kill Jews (which he believes is
the secret desire of all whites), it seems that he also hopes
that a wave of violence might shake the Jews out of their
deadening routines. None of this is completely clear to Danny
or the audience; he shrinks from his angry rhetoric when the
action becomes too intense, but can’t explain why and the
movie never does. Perhaps there are no consistent explanations
for someone who can give the Nazi salute and nonetheless revere
the Torah.
While the film’s ambiguity regarding its main character’s
tantalizing pathology is oddly fulfilling, the rest of the
film is really quite clumsy. Bean seems to have no idea how
to build tension and so consequently anytime action is required
the movie falls flat. Worst of all are the black-and-white
fantasy scenes which embarrassingly try to illustrate Danny’s
paradoxes. In terms of visual imagination Henry Bean
is closer to a Kevin Smith than a Fellini. And
whereas Danny’s peculiarities are thoroughly investigated,
some other characters are hardly developed at all, particularly
the character of fascist guru Lina Moebius’ (Russell)
daughter, Carla (Phoenix). She loves him, she’s a masochist,
and eventually she turns into a Jew, and I have no idea why.
I can only assume she’s there to further expose Danny’s beliefs.
Of course you could see the character of Danny as simply a
vessel for the polemical debates that are really the highlight
of the film.
Loosely based on a true story, The Believer is the
ambitious first film directed by screenwriter Henry Bean (Enemy
Of The State). It won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance
in 2001 and has garnered much acclaim for lead actor Gosling
(a graduate of the same Mickey Mouse Club that gave us Britney),
who does well with a juicy role.
—Ted Rholes
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out
of 5
While we would never encourage anyone to destroy a video... 
