The Phantom Father

Rambling and unfocused, Lucian Georgescu's The Phantom Father—based on a story by Barry Gifford (Wild at Heart)—is an initially interesting (but finally ho-hum) fish-out-of-water comedy about an American professor, Robert Traum (Marcel Iures), who travels through Transylvania and Bucovina in Eastern Europe in order to learn about the origins of his novelist father and Chicago gangster uncle. Paired up with Tanya (Mihaela Sirbu), a local government archivist, Robert searches for an elderly man named Sami (Valer Delakeza), who knew the Traum brothers and until recently was a projectionist in a small town's movie theater. After being run out by the mayor (Mihai Constantin)—who is backed by a Ukrainian gang—Sami now travels the provinces showing movies in a tent. When Robert finally catches up with him, they agree to help one another. Unfortunately, the story loses momentum when the road movie aspect and budding romance between Robert and Tanya are not front and center. Still, Iures is a genial actor and Sirbu is appealing as a skeptical figure slowly opening up to life's possibilities. A strong optional purchase. (T. Keogh)