By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Talya Lavie
Starring: Avigail Harari | Elisha Banai | Meir Suissa | Orly Silbersatz | Ran Danker | Yael Folman
Country: israel
Year: 2021
Running time: 90
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11905730/reference
Michael says: “This Israeli film joins the ranks of fun and whacky movies about everything going wrong overnight in a big city. Newlyweds arrive at their luxurious hotel suite after the reception festivities and quickly break down into a fight after they open a gift from the groom’s ex-girlfriend. It’s a ring (or is it a compass), and the bride insists they find the ex and return the gift to her to avoid bad luck in their marriage. It turns out the ex-girlfriend had been spending a lot of time at the reception chatting with the bride’s ex-boyfriend, and the newlyweds spend the rest of the already late night ping-ponging around the city, first together, then separately trying to extricate themselves from the ghastly situation. While things grow increasingly more absurd, the pair start to see each other in a different light,. and they blush of romantic excitement starts to wear thing at a rapid pace. It’s like watching a years-long marriage at super speed.
“This is a fun film, made largely successful by the actors in the leading roles. Avigail Harari has a tough job keeping any sympathy as the bride, but she is charismatic and while her behavior is rather trying to the extreme in the first half, her general likability makes it easy for the pendulum to swing in her favor as the film nears its conclusion. Dan Ranker is handsome and reasonable as the groom, so it’s easy to understand his growing frustration with the situation, and even side with him when he finally snaps and loses his cool. What’s nice about LaVie’s screenplay is that while progression of action reaches some extremes, the overall absurdity of the situation allows us to go with the flow… even when a musical number appears three-quarters of the way into the film. There’s some nice commentary about relationships going on here, and LaVie and her cinematographer, Yaron Scharf bring the nighttime world Jerusalem alive and evolving depending on the situation… warm and homey, or stark and threatening. There were one or two moments where credulity is stretched a little bit too far, but they are few and far between. 3.5 cats
“Screened at the Tribeca Festival 2021“