After several abandoned openings to this review I have come to a conclusion: Miral is not worth the trouble. Not that Julian Schnabel’s new film is beneath my scorn, but given the controversy behind the film’s perceived anti-Israeli sentiments it’s far too tempting to place the movie in a broader social context. This is but a movie, and it is of mixed quality. Its depictions of a hot-button issue – the Israeli occupation of Palestine – are at turns sentimental, heavy-handed, subjective and judgmental. While it’s impossible to deny the film’s flawless performances and challenging material, it is entirely possible to forget about it a week later. I find myself in that position right now, having admired the film upon first viewing but struggling today to remember just what impressed me so.
Miral stars Slumdog Millionaire’s Freida Pinto as Miral, a young woman growing up in Palestine who falls in love with a terrorist named Hani (Munich’s Omar Wetwally). His politicized views, combined with the struggles she sees on a daily basis, skew her own perspective towards anti-Israeli sentiment. Her father (Syriana’s Alexander Siddig) is a holy man who loves his daughter and fears that this pattern of behavior will result in her arrest… or worse. Rounding out the cast is ‘Mama’ Hind Husseini (The Vistor’s Hiam Abbass), who develops an institute to educate and house Palestinian children orphaned by the conflict, and strives to teach Miral to temper her political activism with moderation and practicality.
The film takes place over 45 years, from the founding of the nation of Israel to the Oslo Accords in 1993 which were intended to bring peace to the region, and to date have – How’s this for diplomatic? – done a rather shoddy job. Julian Schnabel is not a prolific director but his previous films have always focused on fascinating characters rather than a ‘message,’ even when such messages were present. The protagonists in Basquiat, Before Night Falls and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly certainly qualify. Miral does not. Her situation is an intriguing and conflicted one, and while it’s perhaps admirable that Schnabel portrays her as a very realistic teenager – the kind that thinks they know everything, actually know nothing, and aggravates the outside observer as a result (read: all teenagers) – it doesn’t make her terribly compelling. I spent most of the film waiting impatiently for Miral to grow up, eager to discover what incredible series of events will bring this poor girl to enlightenment or perhaps even to her inevitable doom. Those events include listening to American records and mild homosexual experimentation. Wow, she really is a normal teenager after all, right down to the lack of greater significance in those personal experiences. Mama Hind is an infinitely more engaging character, and it’s a disappointment when the movie shifts focus away from her after the first act just because this Miral person happens to have been born.
But of course there’s more to the movie Miral than that: the conflict in the region is a constant source of pressure, from bombings to the destruction of innocent folks’ homes by the Israeli military. At least we assume they’re innocent: we don’t have enough information to make a fair assessment either way. Miral seems to have caught all this diplomatic flack not because it actually supports the Palestinian side of the issue at hand, but because it tells its story from the viewpoint of Palestinians. Naturally, they feel like they’re the aggrieved party. For a time Schnabel earns bonus points for committing to this tactic, making Miral one of the most challenging political films in years, but once in a while Schnabel tips his hand too far and makes the fuss seem momentarily justified. There’s a moment in particular, in which Hani gives Miral a big speech about ‘the way things are,’ which Schnabel films like a propaganda documentary. On the surface it’s a clever way to illustrate just how convincing his argument is to the protagonist, but audiences could be forgiven for thinking the argument is meant for them as well. It’s a damned convincing sentiment when given the Why We Fight treatment, and the film goes from being reasonably subjective to downright subversive for brief periods as a result.
Schnabel once again proves a canny, sensitive director and depicts his wonderful cast with true love, right down to the criticism that accompanies that kind of affection. Miral is a film that challenges audiences to empathize with individuals who might not otherwise elicit such feelings, but a lack of thematic consistency and a simplistic protagonist prevent Miral from achieving the level of importance that justifies actual controversy. It’s a film about people, some more interesting than others, and in the end it’s merely decent.
Crave Online Rating: 7 out of 10
