It’s hard to believe that this story of an ultra-orthodox Jewish man in upstate New York, very recently widowed, who is so overcome by his wife’s death that he becomes obsessed that her soul will find no peace until her body decomposes, made it to film! Not because it’s a bad movie — not at all — but really, how many people would find this plot/theme of interest! Our protagonist, named Shmuel, really, really needs to know how quickly his wife’s corpse will decompose, so he enlists the (grudging) help of a college biology professor (enjoyably played by Matthew Broderick) to employ the tools of science to answer his question. Very original, very different, and, believe it or not, entertaining, but in the end not really anything profound. (Or perhaps its profundity escaped me.)
