A Tale of Love and Darkness

"A Tale of Love and Darkness" (2015 release from Israel; 98 min.) brings the story of Amos Oz. As the movie opens, we see young Amos and his mom, who is telling bedtime stories. We are informed on the screen that it is "Jerusalem, 1945, under British Mandate"> Amos and his parents are trying to build a life , unsure of what is to come. "There is enough room in this land for two peoples", comments young Amos when he meets a young Arab girl at a social gathering. Meanwhile, Amos' mom is starting to deal with with migraines. To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: to state that this movie is a labor of love for Natalie Portman would be the understatement of the year. Not only did she write the script (based on the memoir of Amos Oz), she also stars (as Amos' mom), produces and directs. Yes, this is the directing debut of the talented actress, and it shows quite a bit of promise. The movie brings a good mix of what it was like to be in Jerusalem during 1945-1948, and what the O family endured in particular. The movie also serves as a coming-of-age tale for the young Amos, an only child surrounded by loving parents and family,I suppose that Portman could've easily decided to produce the movie in English, but instead she retained the Hebrew language (and being Jewish herself, already spoke some Hebrew but reportedly took significant language lessons so as to portray this role in pretty much impeccable Hebrew). Beware: if you think this is an 'action' movie (due to the 1948 war), you might be wrong. This is a slow-moving film (in the best possible way), focusing on the Oz family and their surroundings.

"a Tale of Love and Darkness" debuted at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival to positive acclaim. Why it's take this long to reach US audiences, I have no idea but better late than never I suppose. The movie finally opened at my local art-house theater this weekend, and the Saturday early evening screening where I saw this at turned out to be a semi-private screening: there was only 1 other person in the theater. That is unfortunate, and I can only hope that as the movie becomes available on Amazon Instant Video and later on DVD/Blu-ray, it will find a larger audience, which by all means it deserves. I can't wait what Portman the director will do next. Meanwhile, if you are in the mood for an intriguing foreign film about a family in the middle of Israel's birth of a nation, I would readily recommend "A Tale of Love and Darkness".

I have not read the book upon which the film was based, so my comments are purely on the film. Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes in I was thinking, okay, what's going on here? Why should I care about this story and these characters? As I continued to watch my caring about the characters and their story increased, until, by the end, I was very moved and cared deeply.

At some point beyond halfway, I thought the greatest feat here is the creation of mood, not only of the characters but of the whole world presented in the film, and then, transferred to me, by virtue of my watching and listening to it. It's a visual and auditory feast.

A lot happens in this film, both personally and historically, but ultimately what I was left with was a sense of a man recalling his childhood and the emotion that he carried with him through his life. As other reviewers have indicated, it's a poetic film, and I wound up absorbing it the way I might a poem. And in that way, it worked beautifully.

This is a beautifully made film.Its slow pace at times matches with integrity the focus chosen by Portman, one of many interpretive avenues that could be pursued. I find it idiotic for critics to keep saying that "it's not like the book"or describe it as "dreary". I see it as a marvelous visual transcription, its development towards the end seemingly as inevitable as the last movement of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony. Portman recreated an entire era,offered original visual interpretations and the casting ( including her own acting) is memorable. I feel very lucky to have seen this movie before reading the book. I feel I can comprehend the movie on its own merits,and it will augment my appreciation of the book. It will be remembered as one of the best Israeli films based on great literature. An extraordinary debut for Natalie Portman.

I wanted to like this. I really did. Natalie Portman's directorial debut taking on an epic Amos Oz novel about his early life set against the tale of the birth of the State of Israel should have been wonderful. Instead, it felt like a series of beautiful cinematic vignettes that didn't quite come together to form a cohesive narrative. The dramatic tension is missing. The motivations of Oz and his mother and father are not explained. A couple of political scenes inserted to give some context -- namely the scene with the Arab girl and her brother, and the scene where the UN vote is being read out -- feel clunky and not well linked to the more personal story being told. If I hadn't come into the movie already having a good grasp of the history of mandatory Palestine and Israel's early years, I feel I would have been totally lost, as so much was glossed over or not really explored. Moreover, the most interesting parts to me were those that explored Amos's relationship with his father, but Portman chose to focus the narrative on his enigmatic, struggling mother -- someone you get the sense that the boy himself never really understood. There are a lot of wonderful scenes here, but they don't really go anywhere. Haval.

I first discovered this film looking through Portmans filmography and saw that it was a Cannes competition film. So i decided to give it a try.

Portman truly does a fantastic job in her role AND as directing the film!

The first minutes you will notice the cinematography is stunningly beautiful! Visual is amazing!

You will also notice very early that this is a extremly deep and emotional film.

Beautiful and amazingly performed storytelling!

Filming along with music is marvellous good!

Manuscript is pure art and pure poetry!

Beautiful environment!

A extremely well made film almost in every way!

Its a complex, but very good film that i truly recommend!