Take A Deep Breath

Based on a real episode, it opens in a Jerusalem falafel shop shattered by a suicide bomb attack. A medic arrives on the scene and finds a man still alive in the ruins but horribly maimed, with both legs and an arm blown off. The medic applies mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but the man dies. Later the medic learns that the person he tried to save was the bomber. The vignette has the makings of a moral fable, but Mr. Fast will have none of that. Halfway through the mouth-to-mouth scene, members of the film crew start razzing the actor playing the bomber. They decide he’s no good, has to be replaced, and so he is, by an actor who starts hitting on one of the film’s extras. Other complications arise. The police arrive — the video is being shot in Los Angeles — demanding to see the film’s director, played by Mr. Fast, and a film permit, and now we’re in comedy country. And then, suddenly, we’re back in the falafel shop, with a wrecked body and the breath-exchanging kiss that bridges, unknowingly, chasms of ethnic and religious hatred. If Mr. Fast requires irreverent comedy and special effects to arrive at that image, fine. He can do what he wants. He’s amazingly good, and getting better.