A news reporter is assigned to interview Noah, the writer of the Jacob the Baker series, which has been translated into 18 languages. She resents the assignment, wanting to cover more important new stories, but she complies. She asks all the good questions and with every answer from Noah I am hit in the gut with a cry out. This happens throughout the film, over and over, until I am sobbing at the end. Why is this?
First of all, Noah is Noah benShea who wrote the best-selling series about a fictional baker named Jacob. Noah explains that Jacob’s religion is centered on caring and that his story began one day when Jacob was writing notes to himself before work. One of the slips of paper accidentally got cooked up in a bread and the woman who got it was struck by its truth. She rushed back to the baker to ask about it.
Jacob (or is it Noah?) explains that caring is the true magnetism between people. All of us, Noah says, at some time in our life seek help. Our vulnerability as humans is universal.
Noah says his mother told him a good person is anyone who is trying to be a better person. The film is full of adages like this, of truths so great that I was hit emotionally. Maybe it’s because I’m close to the end of my life, maybe it’s because I’m in a thoughtful, melancholy state. But I have to say, the film and the words are powerful.
It could have been filmed like a sermon, but each human problem was complemented by a scenario. There was the woman who wrote to Jacob for guidance in being a mother. Noah, writing for his fictional Jacob, sees she is a mother is in need of mothering and that “inside every parent is a child wanting to be loved.” He lets her know that “in parenting and teaching what you get is what you give.” And finally, “Of all the things you can give your children, give them your time.”
While he is talking, we see the single mother gracefully and joyfully move into meeting her son’s needs in new ways.
There is another scenario featuring a soldier who writes Jacob. He wants to forget through addiction and he asks Jacob for help. An adulterer in Korea laments a marriage that has grown cold. A Danish woman writes of her spiritual doubts. Noah responds to all their letters and we see healing scenarios showing how transformative Jacob’s words can be.
This inspirational film features the writer, Noah benShea, a scholar, poet, philosopher and Pulitzer Prize-nominated author behind the acclaimed “Jacob” books. First published in 1989 by Random House, the “Jacob” books carry messages of wisdom and caring as does this remarkable film.
Credits
Director: Gev Miron
Co-Writers: Noah benShea, Wendy Kout, and Miron
Produced by Number Nine Media and Indian Paintbrush (The Grand Budapest Hotel), and Summer Xinlei
Soundtrack and theme song, “Better Times,” composed by Grammy® award-winning composer Sharon Farber with lyrics by benShea and sung by Eden Kontesz, 12 years old.
Release: Nov. 10, 2023. at the Laemmle Theatre in Encino
Noah’s website: https://www.noahbenshea.com/jacob-the-baker
How to see: Watch Online: https://usmoviestoday.com/movie/tt23471396/
AVAILABLE ON VOD + DIGITAL: Dec. 15, 2023
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