Writer/director/actor Jesse Eisenberg has crafted a charming short story of two cousins on a Holocaust tour of Poland, not a minute too long or too short. Unfortunately for one’s viewing pleasure, Kieran Culkin’s neurotic, or “unfiltered,” character is a real pain, albeit not the one alluded to in the film’s title (or is it?). Hearing Eisenberg interviewed by Roger Durling gave me additional appreciation for Eisenberg’s restraint in filming a concentration camp, his use of Chopin for the soundtrack, and his carefully calibrated mix of humor and anguish. This very “indie” film reinforced my theory that the film industry can survive, and thrive, with a new economic model. And blessedly, no one smoked a cigarette in the movie, just a little weed.

Visually sumptuous–those cardinals’ robes plus the Sistine Chapel!–but the story and characters never grabbed me. Ralph Fiennes was all anguish and emotion, making me long for Anthony Hopkins. John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci and comparable Italian and African(?) stars just made me wonder what they were doing at the Vatican. The plot, too, was cardboard thin, drama I couldn’t care about and an ending that was fun, but not particularly deserved. The idea that the cardinals were “sequestered” seemed to mean that Fiennes could look for the outside information he wanted, but not the rest.