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Online Miral Never Movie 2011 Part 4
It is perhaps fitting that, with Babel and Amores Perros writer Guillermo Arriaga on Tarantino's Venice festival jury, there should be some films in competition that show his influence. Famed for his massive, interconnecting stories featuring ensemble casts, Arriaga (who last year directed the mediocre The Burning Plain) would surely see a little of himself reflected back by Julian Schnabel's French/Israeli/Italian co-production, Miral.
An English language film produced by the Weinstein Company, presumably as Oscar-bait. Fittingly (considering current news events) the film tells the story of the formation of the state of Israel and the hardship suffered by the dispossessed Palestinians ever since, right up until the first hopes for peace in 1993.
It's hard to argue with in terms of politics and sentiment: Israelis and Palestinians should live side-by-side peacefully and atrocities have been committed by both sides (though the film, perhaps reasonably, shows rather more perpetrated by the Israelis). But the thing is, Miral is just so contrived, so false, so cravenly seeking out approval, that it lacks impact and says nothing that isn't either obvious or trite
The fact that the majority of the cast are speaking (at least what sounds like) their second language, only makes things worse. It is a far cry from the Wire-esque likes of Ajami (a film that looks better and better the further away I get from it), with a complete lack of authenticity. The sets look cheap, the make-up used to age actors as the film spans the decades is wholly unconvincing and the non-Arabic actors speak with hammy accents, reducing their parts to caricature.
Flashy cameos by the likes of Willem Dafoe and Vanessa Redgrave just add to the feeling that this is a film with two eyes on international distribution and an American audience. It is cynical, heavy handed and manipulative beyond belief. It feels at times like the dramatic sections of a history channel documentary, as characters talk in long, unbroken historical exposition: "This is an important day for our country.
We have been occupied for many years. Four workers have been run over by a military convoy and we can't take it anymore." This sort of thing is always being directed at characters who should know the information anyway. For example, a man says, to a women who runs an orphanage for Palestinian children: "you see, these children are here because they are refugees. Their homes have been destroyed." I think she knows. She brought them here in the first place.
