It's 1951. Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman) works at his father's butcher shop. They're observant Jews in Newark, New Jersey. He is left off the Korean draft by going to college in Ohio to study law. It's a small conservative school where Jews are a small minority. He rejects the Jewish fraternity. His atheism attracts troubled Olivia Hutton (Sarah Gadon).

Based on a novel by Philip Roth, this is James Schamus' theatrical directing debut. He's worked on many great movies over the years mostly under Ang Lee. I love Marcus' awkward confusion about getting a blow job. It's definitely different from anything I've seen before and it's weirdly funny. There is a strange awkwardness in the writing which I mostly attribute to the characters. There is real discomfort with the dean. There's also some disconnections. Olivia is the first to claim that Marcus is an atheist which is weird. There has to be a missing scene where they discuss religion and he comes out to her. She didn't say it as a guess and I don't think he gave it away earlier. I'm really taken with both Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon. They are really good actors. This is an interesting first stab by Schamus but directing may not be his best skill.

There are two main set pieces, if one can call them that more than scenes, when the young Marcus Mesner is called to Dean Cauldwell's office on the university they study and work at. What should appear on the surface to be a fairly routine chat - Marcus wants to move out of the room he's in as he is, to put it mildly, not getting on with his roommates following a confession Marcus makes about a sexual act he received from a woman (and remember this is 1950 when that sort of... thing didn't happen, or if it did certainly no one blabbed about it) - becomes a grilling about his character.

In a way I was reminded somewhat of The Master when Freddie Quell is "processed" by Lancaster Dodd, although here the Dean is going off of a record (this actually also like a different scene in that movie in that respect too),there's this sense of a real power-play going on, that it's not even necessarily about Marcus' new room request or what's in his file but about what the two men's worldviews are, and how the requisite 10-yearly visits to Chapel service split them so far apart as to be in other continents. Religion, ethnicity, relationships, masculinity, philosophy, all of this gets addressed (in large part because Marcus, in some pain per a big story turning point, can't help but say what he means and mean what he says),and it's easily the highlights of Indignation.

Those moments, which are not brief in length (or it may be because of how cinematic time works that you feel trapped with this poor guy Marcus for an hour when it's more like ten minutes) between Logan Lerman and Tracy Letts as the anxious but steadfast student and antisemitic Christian Dean respectively make this story completely clear but work also on their own as fully formed scenes that tell you everything and more about who these people are. And I really liked the actors playing Marcus and Olivia, who becomes Marcus' crush in a way that he can't figure out how or why but he goes towards despite her statements for him to stay away (Lerman and Sarah Gadon. And the latter probably helps to boost some of the writing with her character, I just liked her so much that perhaps initially while watching it I looked over her being somewhat two-dimensional).

The ending is rushed to me, maybe structurally more than emotionally (though that certainly counts I think). But overall this film, which is about many things - family dynamics between son and father and son and mother (and with a son and his parents after being sheltered, in a way, for a long time in a particular upbringing - this reminded me a little of last year's also 1950 set period, Brooklyn, too),and it is has a lot of the power and rigorous intelligence and scabrous worldview that Roth often has in his work, and it's simply wonderful to see a film meant for adults but about the young college-aged experience - at a time when, as we're told by certain political figures today, America was once "Great" when it certainly wasn't, really - and it charts some rich emotional ground even when it's not at its most original.

In short, for all of its structural or small character written flaws, this is a strong piece of drama that at its most potent comes close to being like, I don't know, Jewish Ingmar Bergman or something like that.

Based on the Book by Philip Roth, considered an Important Writer of Fiction in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century, this Personal Drama has a Multitude of Implications dealing with Family, Sex, War, Oppressive Conservative Values, and Determinism. It's a Heady Story, to be sure, from First Time Director and Long Time Producer James Schamus.

Logan Lerman Plays Marcus, a Jewish Middle Class Boy, an "A" Student following a Scholarship to Escape the Korean War Draft and His increasingly Smothering Home Life, and that Results is His Confrontations among Fellow Students, the Dean, and a Blonde Beauty.

The Story Implies that the Puritanical Sexual/Religious Mores of the 1950's bring about as much Suffering as the War itself. Conforming to the Dictates of both are Devastating to a Free Thinking Spirit. It's a Battle that is Occurring on Many Fronts.

The Film is an Impressive Witty and Deep Exercise as it Manifests on Screen through Verbal Jousts and Tirades of Introspection and Opinions from Marcus and His Only Date, Olivia (Sarah Gadon in a deep, daring Performance).

There are almost Tyrannical Demands from His Father, Mother, and the Dean (Tracy Letts outstanding, especially in one elongated scene). All of the Conversations, including the ones Marcus Narrates, are Thought Provoking, Scary, and Ultimately Depressing.

Overall, an Excellent Screenplay and Acting, make this an Intellectual Exercise for the Egg-Head Crowd and those in Search of the Philosophical. Your Enjoyment will Depend on how much Thought You give to Thinking about such Things that are Scatchingly Sparred in this Heavy Dose of Human Drama.