Leslie Felperin 

Orthodox review – absurd tale of a Jewish boxer on the ropes

The ever-watchable Stephen Graham isn’t enough to save this gloomy and insubstantial British drama
  
  

Michael Smiley, left, as Shannon and Stephen Graham as Benjamin in Orthodox.
Michael Smiley, left, as Shannon and Stephen Graham as Benjamin in Orthodox. Photograph: Dean Rogers/Orthodox Films Ltd

This gloomily lit drama (shot in Newcastle, seemingly on the darkest day of the year, with only a sputtering 20w bulb for illumination) revolves around Benjamin (Stephen Graham), who was once a proud son of an Orthodox Jewish community but now finds himself on the edges of its society. Benjamin has been semi cast out for pursuing his passion for boxing – now indulged for money in grubby illegal bare-knuckle fights – and for marrying a non-Jew (Rebecca Callard). He reaps yet more grief when he agrees to help his slimy goy manager (Michael Smiley) burn down a slum property, owned, it just so happens, by the menacing leader of the Orthodox community (Christopher Fairbank, channelling a cross between Don Corleone and Fagin).

It’s absurd material, very obviously overstretched, beyond breaking point, from its origins as a short. But Graham is as watchable as always, even when working with this tattered script.

Orthodox trailer
 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*