Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a mixed look at the Natalie Portman starrer FREE ZONE. I had links up to the French trailer yesterday and woke to find this review waiting for me. Enjoy!
"Free Zone" is a very interesting movie and I wonder how American audiences will respond to it. But to call it "Natalie Portman's Free Zone" is not correct. Natalie Portman is truly a beautiful and talented, versatile actress, and it will be fantastic to follow her career. We can always count on her to make interesting choices, as much as I am not a big comic book fan, I am looking forward to "V for Vendetta". Anyway, back to "Free Zone" a very small, very political film. Let me start with the negatives then I'll try to finish on a high note. It is misleading to characterize the movie as "Natalie Portman's Israeli Drama" - for starters she plays an American, and two, the movie (the version I saw, maybe the US release will be different) doesn't take place in Israel. It doesn't show any of modern Israel for that matter. For all we know this could have been filmed in the Mojave Desert. The movie starts in the taxi cab and about 80% of the story takes place inside the cab driven by Israeli Actress Hanna Lazlo. For the few times the story goes outside of the cab it's to strange and bizarre locations in the middle of nowhere. The movie is centered around Lazlo's character and the Palestinian woman they pick up in the "Free Zone" who helps them cross over the border heading back to Israel. Of course she has her ulterior motives as well. Natalie's character, Rebecca, is just along for the ride and in fact, she's really not in the movie that much. All that controversy that hit the net months ago about filming at the holy site of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, where she was kissing a guy and all the Orthodox locals got angry, that scene is not in the movie. I think I caught a flash of it in a brief flashback, but there is no scene, I'm guessing it was cut from the final movie.
Let's talk about the title, what does it mean. The whole concept of the "Free Zone" is that there is an area way out of Israel, way out in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in Jordan I believe, where Free Trade takes place because there is no government to control, manage or regulate it. It is made up of outposts and desert dwellers and rebels and all kinds of shady characters that you or I would not want to associate with. So in the story, Hannah Lazlo's character is driving out to this so called "Free Zone" to collect a debt for her husband who is sick and she needs the money for medicine. However once they get there and find things in disarray, a Palestinian woman, Layla, joins Lazlo and Portman in the cab and the whole plot of helping the husband goes out the window. We never hear what happens to him. About half way through, I started to realize what this movie is - it's one big political statement by the director Amos Gitai. And his statement is not terribly positive towards anyone - Israeli's, Palestinians or Americans. Towards the end, there is a moment when the three women are listening to some cool, funky music track and all three of them are getting along, laughing, singing and bobbing their heads to the music (which is a very cool track) but what's this moment really about. It's basically to say that when way out in the middle of nowhere, without any political influence or intrusion, Israeli's, Palestinians and Americans can all get along just fine. However, the second the cab arrives back at the border, all that happiness and good music goes away. Immediately Lazlo's character and the Palestinian woman start arguing and never stop. Portman's character, the American gets out of the cab and runs away. Where does she go? Who knows? Does she live? We don't know. In the beginning of the movie she's running away and at the end of the movie she's running away. So what the director is representing here is that when there is an argument or conflict of some sorts, Americans come in and go along for the ride, get in the way and in the end, they run off, leaving the Israeli and Palestinian to argue until they are blue in the face. The music comes up (the same re-mix music that opens the movie) and the end credits start. To be honest, I felt cheated. Good dramatic set up, interesting and thought provoking, disappointing result.
Now, let's talk about what's good in this movie. The opening of the movie is in fact, fantastic, and artistically speaking from a filmmaking point of view very powerful. It's one shot, lasting for almost 10 minutes straight, without a single cut, holding on Natalie's character, Rebecca, crying. She's in the back seat of the cab and she goes through a range of emotions, very well done. Honestly, this is some of the best acting I've ever seen from her. She holds the screen and your attention and it is powerful, moving, disturbing and sad all at once. If only the rest of the movie were as captivating as the first 10 minutes. It's not a bad movie, but it's not a very good one either. My feelings were obviously mixed and when the film does open in theaters in the US (I've heard rumors of December) I will see it again.
To wrap it up, if Natalie Portman is to ever make another Israeli film, which I would love to see, I hope that it be a story that shows modern Israel as the thriving, amazing cultural place that it really is, show us the normality of life there instead of depicting whatever every movie and the media constantly shows us - war, political chaos, terrorism, religious extremists, etc. I would love to see a romantic drama or something that for American audiences is something we can relate to much more. A story that is not over shadowed by it's political message. As I started this review, I am very curious to hear what American audiences think of this movie. Thanks for reading!
- Michael
