To Dust | Shawn Snyder | Tribeca 2018
Son Of Saul’s Géza Röhrig and Matthew Broderick star in director Shawn Snyder’s new film To Dust. It’s one of the most unlikely on-screen pairings in recent memory, which is what makes the film so appealing and so genuinely refreshing to see unfold.
Shmuel (Röhrig) tragically lost his wife to cancer and is dealing with troubling nightmares about her corpse rotting underground. A devout religious man he is worried that her body won’t truly be at rest and it’s this worrying thought that causes him to cross paths with an unlikely man in Albert (Broderick) a biology professor at a nearby community college. His rabbi and other religious persons dance around the subject, forcing Shmuel to turn to science to get the answers that he is so desperately looking for.
In the wrong hands, this is a story that could have become problematic in many ways. But Snyder handles it with all the absurd dark comedic that it’s concept warrants and it’s played perfectly by Röhrig and Broderick.
While there are some aspects that are a bit too far out there and don’t always fit the mold of what Snyder and co-writer Jason Begue and reaching for, these actors fully commit to their respective roles and this makes all the difference.
At first, Albert finds Shmuel to be a nuisance but soon a true friendship blossoms and the two become united in the quest to find the answers that he is looking for, both in the name of science, religion, and love.
Röhrig came out of nowhere an stunned the film world with his astounding performance in Son of Saul and he gets to play with subdued comedy here, which is a wonderful pairing with Matthew Broderick, who more or less offers the performance you’re expecting from him.
It doesn’t always keep a balanced look and feel of tone but it’s such a genuine and heartfelt effort that casts two actors you’d never expect to see together in an interesting light that makes for a refreshing and thoughtful viewing experience.
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