"MIRAL" — ★★ — Freida Pinto, Hiam Abbass, Yasmine Al Massri, Ruba Blal, Alexander Siddig; PG-13 (thematic material, and some violent content including a sexual assault); Broadway
"Miral" arrives amid a swirl of debate over its pro-Palestianian viewpoint, but it barely merits the controversy. For one thing, its sympathy lies not merely with the Palestinians, but with all who long for order and amity in modern Israel. As explained in a postscript, the movie is "dedicated to everyone on both sides who still believe peace is possible" between Palestinians and Jews.
But — here's the second thing — you might not get that far, because "Miral" is rendered nearly unwatchable by overblown close-ups and unrelenting shaky-cam. Oh ye with tender stomachs should approach with caution. The film boasts some affecting scenes and a few interesting things to say about idealism and the perils of youth, but good luck following the story amid all that visual chaos.
All of which pains me no end, because director Julian Schnabel made one of my favorite films of the last decade: "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," a work of great and lingering poetry, which drew us inside the mind of a paralyzed stroke victim. Janusz Kaminski's camerawork was ethereal; Schnabel's grasp on each scene was patient and composed, nothing like his restless noodling with "Miral" cinematographer Eric Gautier.
The upshot is a multigenerational portrait of several Palestinian women that fails to settle on anything or anyone. In adapting her own novel, writer Rula Jebreal opens the film in December 1947, on the eve of Israel's founding, and follows the independent Hind al-Husseini (Hiam Abbass) as she creates a school for Palestinian orphans in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The screenplay then skips ahead to 1967, the Six-Day War and the story of Nadia (Yasmine Al Massri), a sexually abused runaway who lands in jail next to Fatima (Ruba Blal), a radicalized nurse who tried to bomb a screening of "Repulsion."
On release Nadia marries Fatima's brother Jamal (a sad, graceful Alexander Siddig) and gives birth to Miral, who grows up to be "Slumdog Millionaire's" delicately beautiful Freida Pinto. As a cautionary tale and as a cause for hope, Miral's story does hold some interest — but it never stays put long enough to make us care. About anyone. On any side of the conflict. No, there aren't many sympathetic Jewish characters (just one, and she's a flake), but a bigger problem is the shortage of well-rounded characters across the board. There's Jamal, and that's about it.
Just when we get a fix on a person, or a location, or a time, the movie rattles away to some other person, or location, or time. Its few travel scenes on the roads outside Jerusalem are notable for their clear panoramic glimpses of disputed settlements, which offer some small relief from the jiggly and claustrophobic tight shots in the rest of the movie. These brief excursions outside give us a sense of geography — of Israel as a place, ancient and sun-baked and still, long rooted in tradition and ripped by conflict. The land itself should be the star of the movie, and we see too little of it in "Miral".
Miral is rated PG-13 for thematic material, and some violent content including a sexual assault; running time: 112 minutes.