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Customer Reviews of The Believer

"And What Shall We Learn from You Daniel?''
When Danny Balint (Ryan Gosling) is ordered by a court to sit with and listen to Nazi War camp survivors describe their ordeal, after he and several of his neo Nazi friends desecrate a Jewish Temple, one of the survivors asks the above question: and it's a good one as it not only questions Danny's motives for his crime but more importantly it goes to the essence of Danny's spirit and core. For you see, Danny is not only a Neo Nazi he is also a Jew.
Danny is extremely intelligent, well read and exploding with ideas as well as full of self loathing and disgust with himself. Through several recurring flashbacks we see Danny challenging his Yeshiva instructor on several points culled from the Torah. But why is Danny so angry? So angry that he savagely beats up a Torah student on the street in the shocking, vulgar, jazzily edited first scene of the film. So angry that he participates in an attempt on the life of a Jewish Financial leader. The problem in "The Believer" then is that it is not clear as to what makes Danny tick...what is it about his psycho-pathology that motivates him to act as he does? Would a bad time in school or a weak realtionship with his father propel him towards this kind of self-hatred? Unfortunately, there is almost no evidence presented on the screen to resolve this dilemma; and this is a major failing of the director and screenwriter, Henry Bean.
"The Believer" is rough and ungainly in it's mise en scene with several scenes lacking propulsion and inner fire which in this type of film: out for the provocative, the vulgar and the shocking, cannot afford.
Ryan Gosling gives an unnerving, scary and oddly sympathetic performance as Danny. His Danny is not a total animal and Gosling is especially effective when conveying Danny's soft, empathetic side. The scene with the Nazi camp survivors is especially moving because Gosling's Danny cannot help but be affected by one man's story involving his son's death at the hands of a Nazi guard: Gosling's face exhibits all the conflicting feelings of disbelief and disgust as he actively fights back his tears of sympathy.
Getting back to the question: "And What Shall We Learn from You Danny?"...symptomatic of the film as a whole; it goes unanswered.

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A chilling true story with a remarkable lead performance
At first glance THE BELIEVER seems like the ultimate oxymoron: a Jewish neo-nazi. What makes this movie even more fascinating is that it is based on a true story.
The opening sequence in which the film's protaganist Danny Balint (Ryan Gosling) beats up a Jewish student he stalks from the subway is chilling and leaves the viewer appalled at Balint's ignorance and self-loathing and his apparent unwillingness to accept his creed.
In several flashback scenes a nerdy Danny is shown in his Torah class giving opinions on religion his teacher doesn't like- actually very intelligent and provocative observations- his teacher's inability to accept a different opinion to his only serves to add another dent in Danny's psyche (As a lapsed Catholic, I can understand this all too well).
THE BELIEVER is utterly compelling, Gosling gives a frighteningly plausible performance, the scene in which he gives a newspaper reporter a look at his passionate but undeniably flawed reasoning is one of many powerful moments. A couple of other sequences of the movie I found very interesting is a film clip where God is describedby a yeshiva as "The purest form of spirit. Nothingness without end"; and especially the scene where Danny rolls up a damaged Torah scroll while his friends are destroying a Jewish synagogue. The movie also co-stars Theresa Russell and the almost unrecognizable Billy Zane both in fine perfomances as nazi radicals. I'll go so far as to say this is better than AMERICAN HISTORY X, which I also gave 5 stars. This is a must-see, though not for all tastes.

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Mesmerizing script!
This film is deeply disturbing. We are in front of one of the challenging works made from the independent films. Winner of the Sundance in 2001 ; the movie deals about an outlaw from the jew religion who decides to make a breakthrough with his past traditions seeking for answers . He's a very clever man and very often he made extreme questions to his teachers.
So he makes the whole cycle and becomes Nazi as a rebelness signal , but his memories are stronger and keeps in the deep of his soul respect from the learned traditions . The dialogues are a real tour de force , and there are many disturbing questions without answers.
And since the movie has rapture moments that will remind you to Taxi Driver and American Story X, the film is far beyond from the other two, and it demands a major attention from you.
One of the most powerful cult movies from this new century!