A TALE OF LOVE AND DARKNESS
SP D: Natalie Portman. Israel/U.S. 97 min. Sep 10, 7 pm Winter Garden Sep 11, 9:45 am Bloor Hot Docs Cinema Sep 20, 9:30 am Isabel Bader. Rating: NNN
A vignette-laden biopic based on Israeli writer Amos Oz’s autobiographical novel, Portman’s affectionate portrait of the artist as a young boy verges on hagiography.
Her own performance as Oz’s loving mother is the real thing, though, a compassionate character who was also a romantic fantasist, and she fully brings it to life. The film is filled with voice-overs from Oz’s book. The description of how he learned to consider the meaning and connectivity of words from his austere father while life lessons came from his mother may be poetic, but it’s not cinematic.
Still, there’s much to admire in this first feature set in 1947, a pivotal moment in Israel’s history, when Oz’s leftist humanism was also taking shape.