“Napoleon Dynamite” director Jared Hess and his wife and co-writer Jerusha continue to have difficulties keeping their quirky brand of comedy fresh in “Don Verdean,” a sleepy satire about fraudulent evangelicals searching for biblical artifacts.
Sam Rockwell plays the title character, a small-town pastor and amateur archaeologist whose one moment of glory, a decade ago, was finding an ancient pair of shears in the Holy Land that he presented, ludicrously, as possibly linked to Samson.
An influx of investment capital from a slick evangelist (Danny McBride) named Tony Lazarus, who leads a much larger congregation, sends Don back to Israel to work with a local scammer (Jemaine Clement) in search of more treasure that can in turn be used to draw worshipers and their donations to Lazarus’ church. How about a rock that looks kind of like a hermaphrodite version of Lot’s wife, and supposedly is made of salt? Why not Goliath’s skull or, indeed, the Holy Grail? If Don can’t find any of these, he becomes determined to bring back phonies and hope no one notices.
As is often the case with Hess’ films, the cast of rogues in “Don Verdean” are equal parts pathetic and silly and the comedic moments are dry and deadpan, such as when Verdean explains that you could hardly bring back the Ark of the Covenant because if you look at it, “You will implode.”
As a satire of evangelicals, though, the film is tame and half-hearted, and the nutty caper is funny only intermittently. Hess’ eccentric characters are neither likable enough to root for nor ridiculous enough to earn big laughs.