Sixty Six

Rating PG13 Genre foreign Directed by Paul Weiland Publisher First Independent Pictures

Sixty Six, 2006 independent British film directed by Pau Weiland, is set to release in select theaters on August 1. The film is a whimsical story about a young boy, Bernie, preparing to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah which happens to coincide with the day that England played in the World Cup. This is a terrible disaster for Bernie who expects his Bar Mitzvah to be the best day of his life. His biggest fear is that everyone he knows will be too busy watching the game to come to his party. The story has more complexly deals with grown-up issues as well as Bernie’s own young concerns. Financial difficulties and adult relationships are all areas seen from the perspective of young Bernie and are therefore trivialized beside the circumstances of the Bar Mitzvah itself. The film marks the coming-of-age of young Bernie, giving him the tools to help him grow up and realize what it means to be a man, in the real world.

Paul Weiland, the film’s director, is a well-known UK film director who has seen American success with such films as Made of Honor and City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold. His British film Sixty Six, however, has been in a different grain from others of his films, especially those made for and released to American audiences primarily. The story for Sixty Six bears many similarities to Weiland’s real-life experiences growing up in a home where he did not get a lot of attention from his parents. He claims that he first considered creating this film after his 50th birthday celebration at which he made a speech claiming that, “at the last important party in my honor no one showed up.” Some of his producer friends who were at that party were interested in the story as a potential film and Sixty Six grew naturally from that.

Weiland himself feels that bad luck and sporting events seems to be following the story: through his protests, Sixty Six is now opening in select American theaters on August 1, a week earlier than its original release date. The film was supposed to open on August 8, the same day that the Olympic games begin in Beijing, China. Weiland made certain that his film’s American release would not coincide with any great sporting event, fighting it until he got his way. Usually, and frustratingly for Weiland, his films are released at the same time as bigger-name films that seem to steal his thunder, and he usually lets that be, but he refuses to be forced to stand up against a huge sporting event.

While some of the events in Sixty Six coincide with the director’s real life, having been based on an actual event, the open credits reveal the film to the “A True-ish Story.” Many of the things that end almost happily, Weiland admits, did not quite go that way in his real life, but he takes it all in stride. “God gives this gift to a film director — you can re-write your life and make it turn out the way you want it to.” Weiland has the gift of a good storyteller. 

The filmic style of Sixty Six achieves a kind of patina, giving the scenes a truly mid-century feel. With big names like Helena Bonham Carter, a popular star of the “quirky” character, acting as Bernie’s mom and an almost ever-present film presence, the movie can easily be classed with some of her other characteristic films of similar natures, such as dealing with father-son relationships, like the American Big Fish. The film is comprised of lovely cinematography thanks to a brilliant editing team, and the dialog is superb, and at times brilliantly comedic, from the art of screenwriters Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan.

Sixty Six is an endearing coming-of-age film that any person with a heart could relate to in some way. The fact that it is a filmic memoir does more to bring the viewer into the sense of the reality of the story, as seen through one person's eyes. Creative cinematic choices as well as clever up-filming create the sense that the film really does come from the perspective of a young boy. With all of the clever choices of the film's creator and the talented team he worked with to create it, the film is a must-see for us in America who missed out on it on its first time around!

Sixty Six, which releases to select theaters nationwide on August 1, is rated PG-13 for language and brief nudity and sexual content with a run time of 93 minutes. The film is released by First Independent Pictures.