A whimsical hybrid of musical, memoir and documentary looks at Bernard Madoff through the lens of Jewish identity.
Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme ruined an untold number of investors and struck such a political and social chord that it has inspired screen projects such as “The Wizard of Lies,” at least two Off Broadway plays, including “Imagining Madoff,” and enough books that there are lists dedicated to the best ones.
Add to this bulging collection the musical “A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff,” which Alicia Jo Rabins debuted onstage in 2012 and has now adapted into a film with the director Alicia J. Rose.
A singer, songwriter and violinist, Rabins had an artist residency in an empty Wall Street office when the scandal came to light, in 2008. She became fascinated by all things Madoff, despite serious misgivings: “The truth is, I hated thinking about Madoff as a Jew,” she says in the movie. “It’s pretty much the definition of ‘bad for the Jews.’ ”
She worked through this inner conflict by looking at the events through the prism of their shared Jewish identity. The result is a hybrid of documentary, memoir and musical-mystical essay. Rabins often performs her songs made up as people with connections to Madoff (a therapist, an F.B.I. agent, an investor) and some scenes have a surreal sensibility, as when she muses about interconnectedness while synchronized swimmers perform a routine. But the movie feels shaggily shapeless, as if Rabins and Rose were unsure what, exactly, they were trying to say, or how to get to the mourning prayer that gives their movie its title — and does, eventually, provide an emotional coda.
A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes. Rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
