In TIGER WITHIN, a Holocaust survivor (Ed Asner, in his final role) befriends a homeless teen (Margot Josefsohn) in Los Angeles in what might be the ’90s. Directed by Rafal Zielinski and written by Gina Wendkos, TIGER WITHIN is a well-intentioned film, touching on antisemitism, hatred, fear, and prejudices, and highlighting the power of forgiveness and kindness.
Those good intentions, plus Ed Asner in his last big screen role, has earned TIGER WITHIN a place in several Jewish film festivals. All that is in its favor but this rambling coming-of-age film is an up-and-down experience, a film that does not always know how best to convey its message and which it sometimes does awkwardly. At times, there is a feeling that the film is not well thought-out or focused, and there are other moments that are simply awkward, even a bit squirm-inducing. Yet, the film is often rescued by fine performances by Ed Asner and young Margot Josefsohn as the homeless girl, either in their own scenes or together. There are also moments of touching humanity, some surprisingly powerful, and the teen character at the center of the story in particular has the feel of a lived experience.
The story begins “somewhere in Ohio and sometime ago” (as the on-screen titles tell us), where Casey Miller (Margot Josefsohn) is a blonde-haired teenage girl who wears heavy makeup on her large blue eyes and dresses in punk/goth style black. Casey has bounced around to various schools as her single mother has struggled to get by, and Casey feels she has to fight to defend herself against everyone. Despite her hit-first defense strategy, we sense her vulnerability, her fear, and her loneliness.
The film illustrates Casey’s inner feelings, with little doodles, presumably hers, in the margins of the screen, and sometimes covering the whole image. The illustrations are one of the film’s more effective devices, both reminding us this is a very young person and giving us insights into the inner life she hides from the world, more effectively that voice-over or dialog might have done.
On her first day at her new school, Casey is passed a note from a boy bearing a rude, suggestive message, and she reacts angrily with a string of expletives. But it is Casey, not the boy, who goes to the principal’s office, where the principal comments on her history of rebellion as he pages through her thick file. No new start here.
Later at a party, Casey dances and a skin-head boy tags her black leather jacket with a swastika. She yells at him, but he assures her it means nothing, an explanation she seems to accept – shockingly.
At home, Casey and her mother clash over school. While her mother seems to care about her daughter, she has a history of not paying close attention to what Casey does at school or even if she actually goes. Angry Casey accuses her mother of caring more about her latest, and abusive, boyfriend, who is pressuring her mother to kick the girl out. Mom decides to send Casey to her father in California, a man who she has little contact with and who now has a wife and two daughters.
At the L.A. train station, Casey keeps out of sight when her father and family first arrive, and listens as the wife, who is not thrilled to take on this rebellious girl, complaining about her. Discouraged, the teen decides she is better off on the street, with the meager funds her mother gave her for the trip. As evening approaches, she hides in a cemetery – a Jewish one as it happens. It is there that elderly Samuel (Ed Asner) finds the girl in the jacket with a swastika, curled up asleep on a grave, when he comes to the cemetery for his daily visit to his wife’s grave. Why would he befriend such a girl? That we will find out.
Naturally, Casey is suspicious of Samuel and his motives but accepts his offer of a meal and then a shower, and after several missteps, his friendship. Samuel is endlessly patient, telling her about his life, his experience surviving the Holocaust, of his lost daughters and his late wife. Gently he answers her questions, consistently demonstrates kindness, and defends and helps her when she needs it.
We don’t know how old Casey is, and her hard manner and curse-laced speech suggests someone older but as the film progresses, we begin to suspect Casey is much younger than we assumed at first. That subtle shift comes along with the budding friendship, and her growing affection for the grandfatherly Samuel.
While the dialog is sometimes awkward, and some scenes are clumsy and heavy-handed in how they deal with the film’s messages, particularly antisemitism, those missteps are often redeemed by the performances of both Ed Asner and Margot Josefsohn. Their performances are alive with human warmth, and convincing connections. There are some scene that have the potential to go very wrong – as the only work the underage Casey can find, in those moments when she takes off on her own, is in a massage parlor, when she steadfastly refuses to provide any service except with her hand. A delicate approach is required but Canadian-born director Rafal Zielinski, who is Polish-Jewish and grew up in various countries, keeps things on the right path, although at times the script takes things close to an uncomfortable edge.
Samuel is a man with a sense of humor as well as justice, and Ed Asner does a nice job as crafting the character. He seems to endless patience for a teen who is very trying at first, even elusive but whom he comes to view as a surrogate granddaughter, while she grows emotionally under his unwavering emotional support. The more Asner’s Samuel pours unconditional positive regard and gentle encouragement towards the right path, the more Casey relaxes and transforms into who she really can be. He encourages her to find her true self, her tiger within.
While Samuel is Casey’s emotional rock, Asner looks very frail at times. It works for the character, but it also tugs at our heartstrings to watch him at times. The scenes with both Asner and Josefsohn as Casey are so good. due both to Asner’s skill but also to the actors’ chemistry with Margot Josefsohn, who may be an emerging talent. Hopefully she will go on to bigger things after this role, despite the film’s shortcomings.
THE TIGER WITHIN’s chief merit is its good intentions and the performances of Ed Asner and young Margot Josefsohn. While it is far from a perfect film, it’s message of hope, forgiveness and kindness, paired with those nice performances, make this sincerely well-meant little film worthwhile for the right audience.
TIGER WITHIN opens in select theaters and video-on-demand on multiple platforms on Friday, July 7.
RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars
