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In "Don Verdean," director Jared Hess and his co-writer/wife, Jerusha Hess, show their comic skills are as sharp, and as strange, as when they made "Napoleon Dynamite" in 2004.
What's new is that the Hesses are aiming their oddball humor toward a specific target: the question of faith and whether one can maintain that faith without proof.
Don Verdean (Sam Rockwell) has made a career out of providing that proof to the faithful. He's a "biblical archaeologist," someone who scours the globe seeking artifacts to back up the stories in scripture. Don and his true-blue assistant, Carol (Amy Ryan), don't make a lot of money in this pursuit, until they get a patron in Tony Lazarus (Danny McBride), a would-be megapastor who wants to get more butts in the pews.
With Lazarus' bankroll supporting them, Don and Carol head to Israel in search of the skull of Goliath. They enlist an Israeli "fixer," Boaz (Jemaine Clement), who talks a good game but has trouble delivering. Eager for results, Don and Boaz decide that if they can't find Goliath's skull, they can fake it. Naturally, things spiral out of control, as one lie begets another, and Boaz is suggesting they produce the Holy Grail — which he calls "the Holy Grail of artifacts."
Rockwell and Clement have history with the Hesses — they both starred in their 2009 farce "Gentlemen Broncos," and here they deliver plenty of laughs as their characters' situations grow more farcically desperate. They are joined by some sharp comic performers, including McBride as the blustering pastor, Leslie Bibb as the pastor's high-strung wife, Will Forte as a rival clergyman and particularly Ryan as the story's one voice of reason and conscience.
(By the way, locals may notice the movie — from the opulent megachurches to the Holy Land sites — is all filmed in Utah, where the Hesses make their home.)
What's most remarkable in "Don Verdean" is the way the Hesses poke fun at the folly of biblical archaeology — and the underlying notion that evidence makes one's beliefs more solid — without being nasty or belittling about religion itself. As for whether audiences will get the distinction in the middle of the gut-busting laughs, the Hesses take it on faith that they will.
Twitter: @moviecricket —
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'Don Verdean'
A bible-thumping archaeologist finds himself breaking a few commandments in this offbeat comedy from the "Napoleon Dynamite" team.
Where • Area theaters.
When • Opens Friday, Dec. 4.
Rating • PG-13 for crude and suggestive content, some language and brief violence.
Running time • 90 mins.