1 ,„- Upscale Fine Quality Cuisine Filmmaker's debut is a witty tug of war between Jewish customs, human nature and undying love. iiz. -',......., - . , Drinks ... ( Chinese IVIenu Large . . 40 kinds South Of The Border 1- Authentic Japanese Cuisine & Fine Asian Buffet like you have never experienced! Dim Sum & Appetizers Seafood Hibachi Station Soups Desserts " • -71-Plira, • • • 25333 West 12 Mile Road Southfield (next to Star Theater) Bar/Bat Mitvah Parties Birthday, Anniversary, Etc. 248-208-0088 George Robinson Special to the Jewish News "Grape Leaves have brought much neighborhood satisfaction" S everal years ago, a Jewish- Mexican comedy, My Mexican Shivah, made a brief splash on the Jewish film circuit, largely, one suspects, on the basis of its combination of sheer novelty (Mexican Jews? Who knew?), broad farce and the satisfaction of a semi-happy ending. Since then, we have been treated to a series of Jewish-themed comedy-dra- mas that begin with a funeral and use the observance of the shivah period as the jumping-off point for broad comedy. After you've sat through My Mexican Shivah, Go for Zucker and even Ronit Elkabetz's excellent Shivah, you might think you've done enough Jewish funeral movies for a lifetime, no pun intended. Perhaps that is why Nora's Will, a recent Mexican film by Mariana Chenillo, slipped through the cracks. And that is unfortunate, because by shifting the frame of reference subtly, Chenillo, in her debut feature film, wrote and directed one of the best movies of 2009, a mor- dant study of a 60-year-old man's "com- ing of age,' growing up and accepting the reality of family responsibilities. For the first half of its 92-minute run- ning time, Nora's Will is the bleakest and most sardonic of black comedies. Under the film's credits we see in minute detail the organizing and setting of a table for a beautifully appointed dinner. The sequence ends with a stunning over- head shot of the final result, an intricate image of patterns within patterns. By the film's ending, those patterns, so reflective of the complexities of a human community, will be redeemed by the presence of those people; and the final images of the film, a series of ever- more distant shots of a street corner within a city, will once more subsume their personal dramas into a larger more universal whole. The premise of the film is simple. A couple of days before Passover, Nora prepares her house for the holiday then quietly takes several bottles of medica- tion and dies in her own bed. Her ex- husband Jose (Fernando Lujan), who lives across the street, finds her and sets in motion the machinery of mourning MIDDLE-EASTERN CUISINE & RAW JUICES -Danny Raskin Nora's Will won seven Ariel Awards (Mexico's Oscar), including Best Picture and Best Screenplay. and burial. Except, of course, that in the case of a suicide and a chaotic family constella- tion, the machinery stubbornly refuses to run smoothly. And for about 45 min- utes, the mounting complications are quietly but joltingly funny in a bleak, deadpan manner that is fueled by the remarkable subtlety of Lujan's perfor- mance as a cynical, weary man who has suffered with his wife's (or as he keeps reminding the rabbi, "ex-") 14 suicide attempts and emotional manipulations. But in the second half of the film, with the arrival of their son, his wife and two little girls, the humor is quite deliberately drained out of the film. Slowly, almost agonizingly slowly, the family tensions are aired and, filially, exorcised, and Jose finally is redeemed and redeems, a perfect conclusion for a film that closes with a seder, with its promise of redemption. Nora's Will doesn't have the mariachi band comedy of My Mexican Shivah. Instead, it has the shifting light and shadows of our lives, richly rendered by a superb craftswoman. Troy 248-816-2000 2850 West Maple Southfield Oak Park 248-968-0008 24700 Greenfield Rd S.E. 248-359-0000 29181 Northwestern Hwy. at 72 Mile in Franklin Plaza corner of TO mile rd. www.grapeleavesrestauranf.corn Breakfast Lunch Dinner RESTAURANT Dine In • Carry-Out • Catering Dine Buy One Meal, Get Second 50% off I 10% off I I II II I When you purchase a 2nd of equal or greater value. I I With purchase of 2 beverages. With coupon only. I Cannot be combined with any other special offer. I One coupon per party please. Offer expires 8/ 15/ 10.1 1 Any Catering Order With coupon only. Cannot he combined with any other special offer. One coupon per order. Et.pires 8/ 15/ 10 I Open 7 Days A Week • Sunday-Thursday 8-9 • Friday and Saturday 8-10 6215 Orchard Lake Road (in Sugar Tree Plaza) 248-7374636 F Nora's Will, in Spanish with English subtitles, screens 7 p.m. Friday- Saturday, July 30-31; 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 1; 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Aug. 6-7; and 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 8, at the Detroit Film Theatre in the Detroit Institute of Arts. $6.50-$7.50. Info: (313) 833-3237; advance tickets: (313) 833-4005. www.dia.org/dft. ,IN July 29 • 2010 49