Free Zone *

This movie begins with about 10 minutes of a single shot – a close-up of Natalie Portman crying.The camera doesn’t move and nothing happens for 10 minutes except Natalie Portman cries. I have no idea what the purpose of this was and we never really find out why she was crying, and the movie only goes downhill from here.The only thing you really gain from this movie is Natalie Portman=Good Crier.

There are a number of strange film techniques the director (Amos Gitai)uses to create such an abysmal affect on the audience. Throughout the film she overlaps three scenes on top of one another with different degrees of transparency, so it’s like watching a kaleidoscope. I might have even cut her a little slack on this, but they actually use the same shot of driving through Jordan twice throughout the movie. The plot line seems to be almost something of a joke set-up – an American, an Israeli and a Palestinian go on a road trip…. This could have been a good set-up for something meaningful, but instead it ends up with two ladies (the Palestinian and the Israeli) bickering over money until the American finally runs away. There is no resolution in the film, but when the American runs away you feel happy because at least it’s over. The actresses all give fine performances, there’s just nothing in this script worth seeing.