The holy land begins with an unoriginal scene - a child being born - and ends with an original sequence (the main characters are all depicted in their misery and the main character is .....(American beauty). In between there is a mish mush of uneven ideas and plots lines that are never fully developed.
In seeing "Holy Land" I was really hoping to find something closer to the truth of the seedy and multifaceted society that is modern Israel. But like the film's main character, a naive young Hassidic Jew, the film is clueless and only offers a shallow glance at a few people none of whom (except for the Russian prostitute) really represent the groups that they attempt to depict. The direction is mediocre at best and so is the writing (the worst points come when the concept of God is brought up and rather than attempting to honestly ruminate on this idea the writer merely uses it to move the romantic plot line). The acting is also bad except for the Russian Prostitute who actually does an excellent job portraying the conflicting emotions both through verbal and non verbal expressions. Ironically, she also has the best lines in the movie and her character is closest to the reality of the many Russian expatriate women who are forced to sell their body (and, one could argue, their soul) to escape the chains of poverty that bind their homelands.
But despite the talented actress' best attempts even her character falls flat in the utterly unbelievable sequence that serves as the denouement of the movie. The Orthodox boy confronts her for, essentially, being a prostitute (although the entire point of the movie is that he sees her as a prostitute with a heart of gold) and she leaves him. Atrocious. I wasted two hours of my life.
In seeing "Holy Land" I was really hoping to find something closer to the truth of the seedy and multifaceted society that is modern Israel. But like the film's main character, a naive young Hassidic Jew, the film is clueless and only offers a shallow glance at a few people none of whom (except for the Russian prostitute) really represent the groups that they attempt to depict. The direction is mediocre at best and so is the writing (the worst points come when the concept of God is brought up and rather than attempting to honestly ruminate on this idea the writer merely uses it to move the romantic plot line). The acting is also bad except for the Russian Prostitute who actually does an excellent job portraying the conflicting emotions both through verbal and non verbal expressions. Ironically, she also has the best lines in the movie and her character is closest to the reality of the many Russian expatriate women who are forced to sell their body (and, one could argue, their soul) to escape the chains of poverty that bind their homelands.
But despite the talented actress' best attempts even her character falls flat in the utterly unbelievable sequence that serves as the denouement of the movie. The Orthodox boy confronts her for, essentially, being a prostitute (although the entire point of the movie is that he sees her as a prostitute with a heart of gold) and she leaves him. Atrocious. I wasted two hours of my life.