Review of Disengagement (2007) by James C — 18 Jan 2011

This film has a great opening scene on a train but then shifts to about 30 minutes of sibling relations between Juliette Binoche (acting rather odd) and her Israeli half brother Liron Levo that really go on for too long before the real plot kicks in.

Binoche must go to Israel to find the daughter she abandoned who is living in Gaza which is about to be evacuated by the army. So you have a great opening and a very moving finale but in between is a mishmash.

It's a shame because Binoche is always fascinating to watch and aside from the early scenes, she's fantastic. Writer/director, Amos Gital has a wonderful sense of capturing natural behavior in very long takes but I think that the thread of a storyline against a very important subject gets lost with extraneous character development that goes nowhere.