“Ida” is about a road trip through post-Holocaust Poland, shared by two strangers with a family connection. Wanda, a former judge, is the worst kind of person an American evangelical could imagine. She drinks, sleeps around, talks back to men, mocks God and was a Communist bulldog that put ideological enemies of the state to death. The other, Ida, an initiate at a nunnery, is the worst kind of person an atheist Redditor could concoct. She’s closed-minded, judgmental, and doesn’t like arguing about the Bible with heathens. So what happens when they go on a road trip to dig up bodies and family secrets?

'Ida' Movie Trailer

“Ida,” from Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski, is that one European art film heralded by American critics every year. Last year it was “The Great Beauty,” the year before it was “Amour,” and the year before that “The Turin Horse.” Each one a fantastic movie and each one not really suited for strip-mall cinema audiences. But that won’t stop critics from trying.

Here’s Brian Henry Martin of UTV:

“Maybe a black and white Polish road movie set fifty years ago does not promise a fun night at the flicks. But you would be wrong. Ida is a truly extraordinary experience.”

No, you’re right, Brian is wrong. “Ida” is not a fun night at the flicks.

Or how about Marc Mohan at the Portland Oregonian:

“Just as austere and demanding as you’d expect a black-and-white film about a Polish nun to be. Don’t let that scare you, though.”

WRONG. If that description of “Ida” scares you, indeed let it scare you. It’s accurate to “Ida.”

None of this is to say that “Ida” is bad, it’s actually quite lovely. “Ida” deserves the spot it will hold on a lot of Top 10 lists for 2014. But the need to frame it as pop-art, to insist that anyone could love it, is a peculiarity of film and a mania amongst critics that would look bonkers in the world of books.

So if “Ida” isn’t a rousing Friday night date movie, what is it?

“Ida” is a movie about Ida, who is prevented from taking her vows of nun-itude until she goes to visit her last remaining relative. Ida, who was raised in the convent, is shocked by her hard-drinkin’, dude-doin’ aunt. Ida is even more shocked to learn that she was born to a Jewish family, none of whom survived the Holocaust. Together they drive across Poland to their shared homestead, where they uncover what their family lost. For Ida it is an awakening of identity, but for Wanda it is a re-opening of the wound, a reminder of the trauma she went through and losses that have made her life hollow.

“Ida” is a beautiful movie, though its black-and-white photography gives the film a uniform dourness that hurts its capacity to elevate the mood when it wants, such as when “Ida” discovers jazz… jazz played by a sexy dude. A better decision is the 4:3 aspect ratio, which puts the emphasis on faces and perfect composition to a breathtaking degree, even as the movie cultivates a frame indifferent to human life. Faces and humans are constantly kept at the frame’s bottom, a (perhaps over-used) insistence on the empty sky and the maybe-there-probably-not god above.

The End of “Ida” (You’ve Been Warned)

The end of “Ida” provides both characters with an out, Wanda taking her own life and Ida returning to the convent after experiencing the pleasures of alcohol, cigarettes, and hot Polish boy. The outside world was drained of meaning for Wanda, whereas Ida could never find it in the first place, utterly dissatisfied by the promises of puppies, marriage, and children (“And then?” she asks). Still, her decision to return to the convent, where a laugh at dinner hangs like a fart and life is full of fraternity-like rituals, seems like her own version of Wanda’s oblivion.