Warning! This review contains spoilers! I will reveal the end of the movie! "Walk on Water" is an Israeli movie that depicts a friendship between a hyper-macho Israeli Mossad agent and the homosexual grandson of a very powerful Nazi war criminal.
Sounds pretty deep, no? But it's not a terribly deep movie. The plot is more of a fairy tale, or, better, an operetta. It's completely unbelievable on several levels, and, further, no discernible effort is made to make the plot believable. Suicide, assassinations, a marriage, a creepy birthday party, a birth, flit by on the screen as images, without much backstory or depth.
Therefore, *as a movie*, "Walk on Water" is just on the good side of mediocre.
But! As a political event, it's fairly important. The filmmaker is obviously trying to write a chapter in the ongoing saga of German-Jewish healing in the post-Holocaust era.
If you are seeking a deep, current-release film that addresses the Nazi era, go see "Downfall," a far superior film.
If you want to see a well-meaning film about Jewish-German healing, go see "Walk on Water." The real news here, though, is Lior Ashkenazi as Eyal, the Mossad assassin. Ashkenazi is one of the most gorgeous, charismatic male stars I have ever seen, from Valentino to Clark Gable to Brad Pitt. Ashkenazi is as powerful a presence as any of those. There's been a lot of talk about who ought to be the next James Bond. Hollywood, here's your man.
Knut Berger, as Axel Himmelman, the gay German grandson of the Nazi, plays a fabulous counterpoint to Ashkenazi. Where Ashkenazi / Eyal is short, dark, and tightly wound, Berger / Himmelman is long, lean, lanky, and smoothly casual, very comfortable in his own charismatic homosexuality.
The film is generous in its serving up of these two male stars' great beauty; the audience sees just about every inch of them, full frontal, full dorsal; just about everything except the soles of their feet. They are physically beautiful, and the growing friendship between them is poignant and lovely to observe.
Otherwise, though, the script is boring and lax in parts, and often strains credulity.
Is it really believable that Israel would know the location of such a high-ranking Nazi, get close enough to photograph him, and not arrest him? The Eichman capture and trial suggests not.
The suicide of Iris, Eyal's wife, is never given any background or depth, and so it remains a cypher that doesn't really reach the audience emotionally. Eyal's last minute marriage to Pia, Axel's sister and granddaughter of a Nazi, seems thrown in to complete the movie's theme of reconciliation, rather than to honor any real chemistry between Eyal and Pia.
Eyal, we are told, can't cry; he was born with defective tear ducts. In a key scene, he breaks down and cries into Axel's lap, after peace-loving Axel has murdered his own Nazi grandfather. In another key scene, Nazi sympathizers are taught an Israeli folkdance. At least they don't sing "Kumbaya." Oh, yeah, and then there is the scene where Eyal, the homophobic Jewish-Israeli-son-of-a-Holocaust-survivor, rescues some drag queens by beating up some German neo-Nazi gay bashers, cursing out the gay bashers in perfect German.
You get the idea. The plot is strained very far, and soon the viewer realizes that all these things are happening not because they represent any real development of any believable character, but because the filmmaker believed that these images -- images of a powerful Jew beating up bad Germans, images of a good German assassinating his own Nazi grandfather, images of a Jewish Holocaust survivor and a German granddaughter of a Nazi producing a blond child that will grow up on a Kibbutz -- are good images that will lead to healing.
And, that's not a bad thing.
Again, the two male leads here: Knut Berger and Lior Ashkenazi, are two of the most beautiful, charismatic male presences on any screens anywhere in the world today. They have a great chemistry together, as good as Newman and Redford.
They are worth seeing this movie for, as well as for the movie's good intentions, though those intentions may not be carried out with the finest of narrative skill.
Sounds pretty deep, no? But it's not a terribly deep movie. The plot is more of a fairy tale, or, better, an operetta. It's completely unbelievable on several levels, and, further, no discernible effort is made to make the plot believable. Suicide, assassinations, a marriage, a creepy birthday party, a birth, flit by on the screen as images, without much backstory or depth.
Therefore, *as a movie*, "Walk on Water" is just on the good side of mediocre.
But! As a political event, it's fairly important. The filmmaker is obviously trying to write a chapter in the ongoing saga of German-Jewish healing in the post-Holocaust era.
If you are seeking a deep, current-release film that addresses the Nazi era, go see "Downfall," a far superior film.
If you want to see a well-meaning film about Jewish-German healing, go see "Walk on Water." The real news here, though, is Lior Ashkenazi as Eyal, the Mossad assassin. Ashkenazi is one of the most gorgeous, charismatic male stars I have ever seen, from Valentino to Clark Gable to Brad Pitt. Ashkenazi is as powerful a presence as any of those. There's been a lot of talk about who ought to be the next James Bond. Hollywood, here's your man.
Knut Berger, as Axel Himmelman, the gay German grandson of the Nazi, plays a fabulous counterpoint to Ashkenazi. Where Ashkenazi / Eyal is short, dark, and tightly wound, Berger / Himmelman is long, lean, lanky, and smoothly casual, very comfortable in his own charismatic homosexuality.
The film is generous in its serving up of these two male stars' great beauty; the audience sees just about every inch of them, full frontal, full dorsal; just about everything except the soles of their feet. They are physically beautiful, and the growing friendship between them is poignant and lovely to observe.
Otherwise, though, the script is boring and lax in parts, and often strains credulity.
Is it really believable that Israel would know the location of such a high-ranking Nazi, get close enough to photograph him, and not arrest him? The Eichman capture and trial suggests not.
The suicide of Iris, Eyal's wife, is never given any background or depth, and so it remains a cypher that doesn't really reach the audience emotionally. Eyal's last minute marriage to Pia, Axel's sister and granddaughter of a Nazi, seems thrown in to complete the movie's theme of reconciliation, rather than to honor any real chemistry between Eyal and Pia.
Eyal, we are told, can't cry; he was born with defective tear ducts. In a key scene, he breaks down and cries into Axel's lap, after peace-loving Axel has murdered his own Nazi grandfather. In another key scene, Nazi sympathizers are taught an Israeli folkdance. At least they don't sing "Kumbaya." Oh, yeah, and then there is the scene where Eyal, the homophobic Jewish-Israeli-son-of-a-Holocaust-survivor, rescues some drag queens by beating up some German neo-Nazi gay bashers, cursing out the gay bashers in perfect German.
You get the idea. The plot is strained very far, and soon the viewer realizes that all these things are happening not because they represent any real development of any believable character, but because the filmmaker believed that these images -- images of a powerful Jew beating up bad Germans, images of a good German assassinating his own Nazi grandfather, images of a Jewish Holocaust survivor and a German granddaughter of a Nazi producing a blond child that will grow up on a Kibbutz -- are good images that will lead to healing.
And, that's not a bad thing.
Again, the two male leads here: Knut Berger and Lior Ashkenazi, are two of the most beautiful, charismatic male presences on any screens anywhere in the world today. They have a great chemistry together, as good as Newman and Redford.
They are worth seeing this movie for, as well as for the movie's good intentions, though those intentions may not be carried out with the finest of narrative skill.