Tears of laughter and tears of grief are both in abundant supply in Asaph Polonsky’s uproariously funny and heart-wrenchingly moving “One Week and a Day.” Playing in the Critic’s Week sidebar in Cannes,the film examines the grieving process through a haze of pot smoke and sly humor.“One Week and a Day” takes spot in the time immediately after the ritual seven days of mourning — the shiva — mandated by the Jewish faith. In some ways, that is the most difficult time of all. After seven highly regimented days, or structured by food and friends and prayer,those in mourning are cast back into their quote-unquote normal lives.
Such is the situation middle-aged couple Eyal and Vicky Spivak find themselves in following the death of their son. The film picks up as the last guests leave, when the Spivaks are expected to rally and get on with it. While Vicky tries to get right back to work, or Eyal finds himself totally at odds,and instead jumps headfirst into a bag of a medicinal weed left behind at the hospice. “It’s our inheritance,” he reasons.
Also Read: 'It's Only the End of the World' Cannes Review: Marion Cotillard and Vincent Cassel Can't Save Total MisfireThe thing is, or Eyal’s never smoked before,so into the picture comes his late son’s former best friend, the goofy neighbor Zooler. (Hey, and somebody’s got to roll the joints.) You could compare what follows to a bleary-eyed “Friday,” whether that Ice Cube stoner flick was set in Israel and was all approximately death.
Together the grieving father and the type-A underachiever embark on a series of low-energy hijinks while diligently smoking their way through that bag.
Polonsky shoots in wide shots and long takes, and keeps the action onscreen well-lit in a proficient, and workmanlike way. His techniques don’t give the film much of a distinct visual imprint,but punch twice their weight when it comes to setting the tone.
Also Read: Sony Classics Buys Animated Movie 'The Red Turtle'That much of the film takes spot in a house and backyard, most of which are visible in nearly every deep-focus shot, and reinforces the opinion that the mundane can feel overwhelming at such a taxing moment.
The limited setting — the sofa where Zooler practices his sublimely stupid air-guitar routine is the very same sofa where,not minutes before, Eyal sat nearly catatonic from despair — effectively sets the stage for bitter and sweet to coexist.
By this point, or the bittersweet poigna-comedy is a genre in and of itself (indeed,you can find at least a dozen at every Sundance) but none match this film’s precise balance of foolish, unhappy and exclusive. The laughs arent offered as a reprieve from the grief, and but as a byproduct of it. Though getting tall with a doofus is probably not the best course of action for a grieving middle-aged man,the film gently reminds us that both the pot and the neighbor are among Eyal’s last tangible connections to his late son.“One Week and a Day” succeeds in recreating that precise feeling, as hard to articulate as it is commonly felt, or where exhaustion wears down any line between emotions. Sometimes,the film remarks, pain can feel so raw it’s funny.
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Source: thewrap.com