Review of Miral (2010) by Thomas W — 11 Oct 2011

Rising-star Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger) stars as the title-character, Miral, in Julian Schnabel's latest film since his masterpiece, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (#11 on my 100 Best List of the last decade).

This is NOT Diving Bell nor is it anywhere close and it arrived in theaters with its fair share of controversy although I don't really understand why. I guess anyTHING that pits Palestinian interests against those of Israel is considered controversial although there is very little here to get upset about.

The film's subject matter is big -- HUGE -- but the story is small not-as-important as some would have you believe. The movie begins in 1948 a few years after the close of WWII after the Jewish people had returned to their "homeland" in the Middle East in a wartorn, touchy and angry Jerusalem (immediately following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the awful Deir Yassin massacre) where/when Hind Husseini (Hiam Abbass - Munich, The Visitor, Lemon Tree) used her wealth and privilege to open an orphanage for 55 refugee children (of the said massacre) .

.. and within six months that number ballooned to 2000! The film flash-forwards four decades, to 1987 when we meet Miral, a teenage girl who was brought to the orphanage ten years earlier following the tragic death of her mother.

The film pauses/highlights a few, key moments in Israeli/Palestinian history before landing in the 80's with Miral; but by not giving them enough context or historical heft, Schnabel lessens their importance (they've been shown .

.. but they've been quickly glazed over -- EVER so briefly). I think this is a major problem of the film as not everybody is well-read on Isreali/Palestinian history and coming from the states has more-less given us a biased take on all of these events.

I have NOTHING against Israel; but so-many people here don't realize everything Israel has done on their own to bring strife and hatred upon themselves in that already volatile region (we canNOT forget that Israel had agreed to Palestianian borders but changed their minds with military manpower! [what if every border conflict/disagreement were to be resolved with military means!?]).

The film, Miral, falls way short here as we don't get to see two sides to this important story. Schnabel is seemingly making one-side much more sympathetic than the other while NOT giving us much at all on either side (we are supposed to simply tag-along with Miral and think what she thinks) -- and this is perplexing.

Neither side is innocent of bullying or political maneuvering but we aren't privy to any of it here and it oftentmes left me wondering "what am I supposed to be thinking?" Very small, brief roles are played by Willem Dafoe (The English Patient, Platoon, Spider-Man) as a British soldier who is friends with Hind a blink-and-you'll-miss-her Vanessa Redgrave (Letters to Juliet, Howards End, Atonement) as a hotel owner in 1948 Jerusalem.

I think Miral wanted to be an important film and because it wanted to do "so much" it ended up doing very little. Because it wants to take its viewer into so many directions but forgets to tell more than one signifcant story, it isn't balanced and only one side carries all of the weight.

(It should be noted that the character Hind Husseini was a real person [she passed in 1994] who did use her father's mansion as an orphanage where she raised and taught children of all ages -- which I guess might have been part of the controversy as we are not supposed to know and/or assume that ANY Palestinian could be a "good" person.

Shocking, indeed.).