Gregg Sulkin and Helena Bonham Carter in Sixty Six

Director Paul Weiland brings autobiographical Bar Mitzvah tale across the pond

By Michael Fox, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer

When Paul Weiland was growing up in London and his schoolmates chose sides to play soccer, he was always picked last — after the boy with polio.

“I was pretty weedy,” he says, on the phone from his London office. “The school was pretty tough, and my skills on the football pitch weren’t good. And it didn’t help that I was Jewish.” There were only two other Jewish children in his grade.

Weiland, 55, has done pretty well for himself in the years since then. He’s become an important film and television director in the U.K., and has crossed the pond successfully with films like City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold and, more recently, Made of Honor.

But despite the success and its accoutrements — fame and money — he has never forgotten the humiliation of waiting for his name to be called. That struggle is at the heart of Sixty Six.

The feature film is about growing up overlooked — by his schoolmates, and even by his parents.

“My mother couldn’t see me,” he says. Occupying almost all of her time was his father, who had obsessive-compulsive disorder. “(My father) was the child in the family and (my brother and I) didn’t get as much attention as we would have liked,” Weiland says.

Helena Bonham Carter, Eddie Marsan, Gregg Sulkin, Stephen Rea in Sixty Six

Paul’s doppelganger is Bernie Rubens, whose life finally takes on a purpose as his Bar Mitzvah approaches.

“It wasn’t that I was that religious,” Weiland says. “The fact of the matter was that I might get some attention. I would perform and get my Mom to see me and in that way she would recognize me.”

In Sixty Six, though, it isn’t to be. The father runs into serious financial problems. The family home catches fire. And the lavish affair young Bernie planned in his head becomes a house party with music by an Irish band.

Worse still, in spite of the predictions of every knowledgeable sports fan, England makes it all the way to the World Cup soccer final in London — held the day of the Bar Mitzvah. Even family members send their regrets.

The film is at once sad, funny and moving. Making it “was a lot harder” than Weiland anticipated. But “at the same time, it was a cathartic experience. It was like being in analysis, really. In a way, you’re basically dealing with your demons.”

The idea for the film grew out of Weiland’s 50th birthday party attended by 150 of his closest friends.

“I’d been to quite a few of those kinds of parties where the guest of honor made amazing speeches. I thought to myself, ‘My God, what am I going to talk about?’ I started out by saying at the last important party in my honor no one showed up. Afterward a few producers came up to me and said that my speech was almost like a pitch. They wanted to see a full treatment.”

The film was released in the U.K. in 2006, and as one indication that Weiland’s poor timing for special events is no fluke, it came out the same weekend as Borat. The next week, a James Bond movie was released — “slightly bigger events for people to go to,” Weiland says wryly.

Bad opening day aside, Sixty Six did well in England, particularly in the Jewish sections of London.

“They were queuing around the block and even in the fifth week it was still filling the theatre,” Weiland notes.

“It was a labor of love. I did it in the kid’s voice — a kid who really wants his Dad.”

At film’s end, there is a rapprochement between father and son. Sadly, that’s not what happened in real life.

“This is how I would have liked it to end, but it really didn’t,” Weiland says. “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.”

Sixty Six, will be screened on Tuesday, April 28 at 7 p.m. at the Little Art Theatre in Yellow Springs followed by a discussion led by Jay Rothman; and on Sunday, May 3 at 3 p.m. at the Neon Movies. For more information, go to www.jccdayton.org.