Dough (2015)

Summary: Nat Dayan is a kosher baker with a shop in London opened by his grandfather. The lady who owns the block in which it is situated, Mrs Silverman, seems keen to sell to Nat’s rival Sam Cotton the owner of multiple convenience stores, one of which is next door to Nat. His problems increase when is assistant leaves to join the rival organisation. Meanwhile Ayyash, a young Muslim immigrant is involved in minor drug dealing on behalf of a local crime boss. But his mum does cleaning for Nat, and persuades him to take on her son as an apprentice. When some of his marijuana stash is accidentally mixed with dough the fortunes of the shop change and for a while it seems that the business can be saved, that is until Sam Cotton sees what is happening and buys evidence, which he will use to ensure that his plan will succeed.

Content: No sex or nudity, some wine drinking in social situations and of course the weed features in a central role. Nat is seen getting up at 4 am, he has trouble keeping up once his assistant leaves, but things go better once Ayyash joins. Ayyash and his mum are seen in a horrible damp flat which they finally have to leave, but Nat offers them sanctuary. Mrs Silverman gets Nat to visit her but his interest is only in keeping the shop. His son, who is a lawyer does not want to take over the business. Ayyash is also working for Victor the drug dealer who is threatening. Sam Cook, despite saying that he will support Nat in a bakery in his store, is actually going to build a multi-story car park.

A View: I note that the limited number of critics who saw this film did not like it much, but some one has noted that it ran for weeks in Cincinnati. It is a low cost outing with a bit of a message about relationships despite religious differences, and tolerance of drug use. I watch a lot of movies, without much regard for their age or themes, just what is available on our cable channel, and I have to say that  Dough stands out as fun, and the actors universally charming, particularly Natasha Gordon as the African Muslim mother. The fact that we could see from early on how it was all going to go made it more enjoyable. So well worth a view.

I always enjoy watching Jonathan Pryce, regardless of what he is appearing in. The variety of films in which he can bee seen and which have been reviewed on this site include: Bond 18: Tomorrow Never Dies, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote and The Wife.