Much of this story-- Golda Meir's handling of the Yom Kippur War-- is well known to those of us who were around at the time. But it's been fifty years since then. It's even been forty years since Ingrid Bergman starred in "A Woman Called Golda." So the story is worth telling to a new audience even if the surprises are few. (Credited under "Thanks" is Zvi Zamir, and for me one surprise is that as portrayed in the movie, he tips Golda off to some facts that weren't known to the public at the time-- and I must have missed them if they were revealed later.)
Helen Mirren's physical transformation into Golda has been much praised, but I can't say I bought it. Her appearance varied too much from scene to scene, and her cheeks in particular were often wrong-- insufficiently droopy. Other distractions include an occasionally quirky musical score and an inclination by the director to occasionally go expressionistic or even surrealistic.
But a movie that treats Israel relatively kindly is a nice thing to come upon in 2023. At the opening, there's a quick review of Israel's history from 1948 to 1973, and that review could be faulted for extreme reluctance to offend Israel's attackers and for ending with an accusation of "hubris" on Israel's part, but it's quickly counterbalanced by the sympathetic focus on Golda.
The other characters are almost props. There's no attempt to make Liev Schreiber look like Henry Kissinger, although he has the voice down startlingly pat. The role of Lou Keddar is a thankless one, because she's one-dimensionally angelic. She is, after all, the source of the lion's share of inside information that the world has about Golda. The actors playing Golda's security advisors include some of Israel's best, but mostly they just recite exposition in an appropriate tone of voice.
If you don't know much about the Yom Kippur War, this is a good movie to watch. If you know the history, maybe just watch if anyway for Helen Mirren and try to ignore the awkward mask pasted onto her face.
Helen Mirren's physical transformation into Golda has been much praised, but I can't say I bought it. Her appearance varied too much from scene to scene, and her cheeks in particular were often wrong-- insufficiently droopy. Other distractions include an occasionally quirky musical score and an inclination by the director to occasionally go expressionistic or even surrealistic.
But a movie that treats Israel relatively kindly is a nice thing to come upon in 2023. At the opening, there's a quick review of Israel's history from 1948 to 1973, and that review could be faulted for extreme reluctance to offend Israel's attackers and for ending with an accusation of "hubris" on Israel's part, but it's quickly counterbalanced by the sympathetic focus on Golda.
The other characters are almost props. There's no attempt to make Liev Schreiber look like Henry Kissinger, although he has the voice down startlingly pat. The role of Lou Keddar is a thankless one, because she's one-dimensionally angelic. She is, after all, the source of the lion's share of inside information that the world has about Golda. The actors playing Golda's security advisors include some of Israel's best, but mostly they just recite exposition in an appropriate tone of voice.
If you don't know much about the Yom Kippur War, this is a good movie to watch. If you know the history, maybe just watch if anyway for Helen Mirren and try to ignore the awkward mask pasted onto her face.