This facile, fish-out-of-water quasi-comedy directed by Zack Bernbaum plays out like so much indie fare these days: a film with a mildly bizarre premise that’s short on character development, never really able to mine potentially comedic situations for many bona fide laughs. The film opens with the two sibling-rival protagonists—frosty mathematics guru Aaron (Douglas Nyback) and recovering alcoholic Sarah (Katherine Fogler)—loitering on the platform of a freezing train station in rural Poland waiting on a nonexistent train. And in the space of the first dialogue exchange, we know we’re in for a long ordeal with this insufferable bickering brother-sister combo, both provincial Canadians who are a bit short on worldly wiles.
Their absurd mission, as we soon find out, is to carry out the last wishes of their recently deceased grandma, who fled Poland during WWII: her last request was to be buried alongside the remains of her dog, Peter. So it’s up to these two impatient, irascible, overprivileged twentysomethings to find their granny’s home in tiny Dombrova, dig up whatever’s left of the dog, and haul it back to Canada. We also made aware of Aaron and Sarah’s Jewish heritage and how this might eventually rub some Dombrova locals the wrong way: it seems the only thing these two really know about Polish culture is the country’s reputation for anti-Semitism.
Although Aaron and Sarah’s fears do come to pass—in the most throwaway scenario imaginable, granted—Bernbaum’s film never makes any serious attempt to deal with racial or religious prejudice. What we do get are Aaron and Sarah inserting themselves in one uncomfortable situation after another ripe with comic potential but always ending with unfunny social unease: their interactions with gangsterish locals, a deadbeat dad priest, a malapropism-spouting guesthouse owner, and a mute cab driver and her precocious “human detective” adolescent son never seem to evolve beyond distanced amusement or snobby petulance. Not recommended.