MOVIE REVIEW : ‘We Never Die’: A Sunny, High-Spirited Journey

Robert Koltai’s blithely nostalgic and sentimental “We Never Die� (at the Monica 4-Plex) has such high spirits it’s no wonder it was such a box-office hit in Hungary. It has the warmth and rueful humor of the Jiri Menzel films but hasn’t as much of their subtlety and acute social observation. It travels well anyway but is best regarded as a minor, though certainly endearing, effort.

An established cabaret performer and stage actor, Koltai, at 49, makes his screen debut as the film’s star, director and co-writer in this largely autobiographical tale. He casts himself as the grizzled, stocky Gyuszi Tordai, a free-spirited itinerant wooden hanger salesman, who, as a birthday present, takes his gangly 17-year-old nephew Imi (Mihaly Szabados) along with him on his travels one summer in the early ‘60s. Imi’s parents have good reason to feel a certain apprehension in leaving their son with Gyuszi, who once they’re out of sight, promises the kid “Grub, booze and women.� Gyuszi also plays the horses--heavily.

Gyuszi is, in short, one of those indefatigable life-force types like Auntie Mame or Zorba the Greek. Wherever there are people around he must show off in some way and become the center of attention. Bombastic guys like Gyuszi can become boring and tiresome very rapidly, and it is Koltai’s key accomplishment that he prevents this from happening. He dares to give the man some quiet moments. Gyuszi may be loud, but he’s not a fool, although he may play one if it suits his purpose, and he genuinely cares for his nephew. He also genuinely cares for women, which is no doubt why he’s so successful with them despite his seedy appearance and crude manner.

Koltai shrewdly gives his story a bittersweet spin, and allows Gyuszi a really nasty run-in with some cops to remind us that we are after all in a Communist country. On the whole, however, “We Never Die� (Times-rated Mature for some sex, nudity) is a sunny journey into a simpler past, into rural, small-town areas where everybody and everything is shabby and poor but where people seem capable of enjoying life and one another.

‘We Never Die’

Robert Koltai: Gyuszi Tordai

Mihaly Szabados: Imi Tordai

Kathleen Gati: Betty Lou

A Bunyik Enterprises release of a Hunnia Studio-Magic Media production. Director Robert Koltai. Line producer Laszlo Sipos. Executive producer Sandor Simo. Screenplay by Gabor Nogradi, Koltai. Cinematographer Gabor Halasz. Editor Mari Miklos. Music Laszlo Des. Production design Gyula Pauer. Sound Gyoorgy Kovacs. Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes.

Times-rated Mature (for some sex, nudity).