Posted: 12/06/2011

A Matter of Size

(2011)

by Joe Sanders

Available on DVD from Menemsha Films on December 6

In the Israeli city of Ramle, four friends trying to lose weight finally get frustrated with the all the dieting and ridicule from their weight watching group’s dictator, and quit. However, they don’t quit without a backup plan. Our hero, Herzl (Itzik Cohen), having just started a new job as a dishwasher at a Japanese restaurant gets a quick taste of sumo wrestling and decides to start a sumo club in Ramle. Herzl’s boss agrees to be their coach, and the four men begin training to hold their own sumo wrestling tournament.

It’s easy to see why A Matter of Size won so many audience choice awards at various different film festivals; it’s incredibly charming in its ability to celebrate its own uniqueness. There is a lot of humor that comes from watching these four jewish men train to be sumo wrestlers, obviously, but this film’s greatest asset comes from how these people interact with each other and how each of them comes to terms with their own obesity in an idiosyncratic way.

Herzl is an incredibly loveable character. His ability to turn his shame about his weight into something to be proud of as a sumo wrestler is very powerful. It’s easy to see why Zehava (Irit Kaplan) is drawn to him early in the film and their relationship is sweet and well-grounded. However, a conflict is necessary to make any relationship dramatic, so when Zehava is told by the coach, Kitano (Togo Igawa), that there are no women in sumo and she can’t be on the team, and Herzl tells her that he won’t be on the team without her, we know he’s lying. Especially since Zehava went out of her way in an earlier scene to tell Herzl that her biggest relationship pet peeve is dishonesty. So, Herzl lying to Zehava might be too ridiculous for the audience to see; since she even says at one point that she doesn’t care if he goes to sumo, but just cares if he lies about it, and he still lies about it. This does make Herzl a more human character, complete with flaws and weaknesses, but Zehava removes all reason for him to lie about his sumo wrestling and he still can’t be a big enough man to come clean.

The entire ensemble here is great. Alon Dahan’s character Gidi coming to terms with his weight and his homosexuality simultaneously is amazing, Shumlik Cohen’s character Sami documenting the jewish sumo wrestlers is an interesting (though underused) narrative device, and possibly the most fascinating performance comes from Dvir Benedek, who plays Aharon. Aharon’s characterization comes from the idea that he believes he is not good looking enough to please his wife. He tries to diet and change himself to keep her, and the more he fails the more angry he gets; never realizing that it’s that anger and not his weight that pushes her away. This relationship feels completely believable and these two characters go through a terrific arc together.

Special features include a collection of trailers for other new releases.

Joe Sanders is a playwright and college instructor in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He has a Master’s degree in playwriting and a Bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Western Michigan University, where he currently teaches Thought and Writing.

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