Treasure (2024)

Sentimental TragiComedy That Is Missing Something!! - Treasure review by GI

An occasionally bewildering tragicomedy that never quite gels and has a sentimentality the narrative demands but feels misplaced within the main subject matter, the Holocaust. This is a road trip film where a neurotic New York journalist, Ruth (Lena Denham) has travelled to Poland (it's 1991 just at the end of the Cold War) in order to discover some of her jewish family heritage. She is accompanied by her well-intentioned but awkward Dad, Edek (Stephen Fry), who survived the Nazi death camps where the rest of his family died. Ruth can't understand why her father seems intent on sabotaging some of her plans for the trip, for example she fails to grasp why he won't travel on the trains instead preferring to pay for a taxi for the entire journey. Obviously it's during this journey that Ruth and Edek bond over issues that have remained unsolved in their normal lives. The film is a strange confection though with issues left unresolved. For example Ruth indulges in some self harm appearing to periodically tattoo herself with Nazi camp numbers. There is a major scenario where they find the family's original home now occupied by another family who appear to have some of Edek's parents belongings. The culpability of these people in the plight of the jews deported is never realised even though they appear guilty of something! The scenes set in Auschwitz are moving though but overall the film feels unfulfilled. Something feels missing here as if the edit has been a little too ruthless. A shame as there was a film that had promise here.