Tehilim

An Israeli family’s religious faith is shaken when one of its most devout members inexplicably disappears, leaving the rest to reconcile the absence on their own terms. Raphaël Nadjari takes a promising screenplay and does nothing to fulfill its potential, milking drawn-out moments of anger, frustration and sadness instead of forging cinematic epiphany. Imagine a Jewish L’Avventura without any of the profound existential rumination, troubling emotional ennui or unnervingly seductive filmmaking, and a picture will form of this well-intentioned but ultimately simplistic tale of loss.