NR | 1h 32m | Drama | 2025
Playing out like an Angel Studios or Lifetime TV drama cross-pollinated with a bold art-house character study, “Cash for Gold” takes quite a few narrative gambles along the way and wins most of them. Based on the 2013 eight-minute short film of the same name, the movie is a labor of love for writer, co-director, and leading lady Deborah Puette.
The opening title sequence gives us an indicator of the unforgiving winter in the northern Minnesota town of Chisholm. The camera pans distant vista shots of small businesses and desolate industrial parks surrounded by and topped with seemingly endless amounts of snow. This paints a picture of placid life caught in the vice grip of an unforgiving Arctic stranglehold.
Mother and Child
If all of this wasn’t bad enough, we get the impression Grace might be an alcoholic, who is still in the throes of depression in the wake of the death of her service veteran husband. Her icy relationship with her former mother-in-law Boots (JoBeth Williams) grows more contentious by the day. The only thing that brings Grace any joy is the time spent with her asthmatic preschool son, Noah (Sawyer Gacka), whom everyone lovingly refers to as “Bean.”Upon reaching her emotional nadir, Grace visits Cash for Gold, the local pawn shop owned by Hasan (Farshad Farahat) and his father Mohammad (Marcelo Tubert), the only Iranians in Chisholm. Hasan buys one of Grace’s items (for next to nothing) and informs her that the other is worthless.
On her way out, Grace notices Mohammad posting a “help wanted” sign in the window and she immediately applies. Told the job is for a handyman, Grace tells the men she’s a perfect candidate as her father was a handyman. With part pity and gut feeling, Mohammad hires her, much to Hasan’s chagrin.
Brilliant Narrative Shorthand
Employing some brilliantly condensed narrative shorthand, Puette takes just five or so minutes of screen time showing the trio getting through their awkward “getting to know you” phase, to the “this is working out well” period, then to the men inviting Grace into their home for dinner.
It is also during this stretch where Puette and her co-director Robert Enriquez first address the men’s origins. Mohammad was a physician in Iran, and Hasan was in medical school before coming to the United States under circumstances that are never (purposefully) made clear.
It’s not until well past the halfway point that we learn more about the men’s back stories, and absolutely none of it is angry, resentful, religious, or political. This is one of the many reasons why the movie is so refreshingly original and positive with its messaging.
As to not reveal a huge plot spoiler, there is an incident late in the second act where racism against Hasan is presented, but is answered in a most unexpected and surprising manner.
Real and Relatable
Puette’s crowning achievement is her flat-out unwillingness to play it safe at any point in the screenplay. Grace is a flawed character, who makes iffy decisions and says and does things she sometimes later regrets. This doesn’t make her a bad person. On the contrary, Puette’s spot-on portrayal of Grace makes her eminently relatable and empathetic.
There are thousands, if not millions, of women just like Grace. They are found, not only in the United States, but all over the world going through similarly trying circumstances that have no easy answers. What makes Grace so inspiring is her refusal to give up and throw in the towel.
Everyone does fine when things are going good. It is when we’re desperate and seemingly out of options in the bad times do we rise to the fore; only then can we overcome and conquer adversity.
