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In spite of two engaging leads, the cross-cultural comedy "Dough" never rises above its clichés.
Jonathan Pryce (currently tormenting the Lannisters on "Game of Thrones") stars as Nat, an Orthodox Jew who has run his family's kosher bakery for decades. When his assistant quits for a nearby big-box store, Nat reluctantly signs on a new apprentice: Ayyash (Jerome Holder), a Muslim teen who escaped Darfur with his mother (Natasha Gordon). But Ayyash only takes the job as a cover for working for a local drug dealer (Ian Hart). When Ayyash accidentally spills marijuana in Nat's challah dough, the results expand the eater's minds and the bakery's customer base.
Rookie screenwriters Jez Freedman and Jonathan Benson pile on the predictable contrivances, from a ruthless businessman (Philip Davis) trying to run Nat's bakery into the ground to a lonely widow (Pauline Collins) eager to get the widower Nat into bed.
Director John Goldschmidt, earning his first credit in nearly three decades, pounds the script's message hard, though Pryce and Holder occasionally sneak in some subtle moments of real connection.
'Dough'
Opening Friday, May 13, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas; not rated, but probably R for language, violence and drug content; 94 minutes.