Loot was not at all what I expected. It is advertised as a treasure hunting documentary, where a real-life Indiana Jones helps these two veterans of WWII try to find caches of war loot that they buried oversees at the end of the war, one in S.E. Asia and one in Europe. Sounds fabulous, but what it really turns out to be is a strange reflection on the horrors of war and time’s inability to erase the damage it does to everyone. This in itself is not a bad thing; in fact the film is rather interesting in this regard. But the treasure hunting aspect is really a let down, which only leaves the depressed and damaged psyches of the individuals trying to find the treasure. My wife and I were pretty bummed out when we left the IFC theater in Manhattan.

The other problem with Loot is that you never really learn what makes the treasure hunter guy tick, or anything about him at all. He seems like a regular lower-middle class Joe who just happens to know these guys who buried treasure, but then he also financed a $100,000 hole in South America to look for treasure (he never found anything) and one is left wondering “where the F did he get the money to dig that hole?” He is just an enigma, which is really unfortunate in a documentary. Is he crazy? An opportunist? A natural-born adventurer? Mentally ill? Who knows?

I love quirky, independent stuff like this, but unfortunately I really can’t recommend this film very much.