This keen, ambitious movie has too much on its plate, although the morsels are fascinating.
Walk on Water (2005)
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Reviews Counted:73
Fresh:53
Rotten:20
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: Politically complex and ambitious, Walk on Water delivers a memorable story of guilt, revenge, and human connectivity.
Theatrical Release:Mar 4, 2005 Limited
Box Office: $2,517,647
Synopsis: Eytan Fox's follow-up to his acclaimed YOSSI & JAGGER is a profound, multilayered drama hidden in the guise of a genre picture. Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi of LATE MARRIAGE) is a successful Mossad special... Eytan Fox's follow-up to his acclaimed YOSSI & JAGGER is a profound, multilayered drama hidden in the guise of a genre picture. Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi of LATE MARRIAGE) is a successful Mossad special agent whose heartlessness makes him an exceptional hit man. It also hinders his ability to connect with those closest to him. When his wife commits suicide, Eyal is thrown into a mental tailspin. His latest assignment finds him playing tour guide for two German siblings whose Nazi grandfather may or may not still be alive. Pia (Carolina Peters) has left her homeland and family out of shame for what her grandfather did, while Alex (Knut Berger) is an easygoing liberal whose open-mindedness bothers Eyal. Without realizing it, Eyal finds himself forming a close bond with Pia and Alex, until he realizes that Alex is gay. After a bitter farewell, Eyal manages to swallow his pride and visit Alex in Berlin, where he confronts his family's own awful past. In the process, the mystery surrounding Alex's criminal grandfather is revealed. WALK ON WATER is a difficult film to categorize, addressing several major issues at once (homophobia, guilt, reconciliation with the past, politics, and more). Despite its complexity, Gal Uchovsky's assured script and Fox's sure-handed direction keep it together. Ashkenazi, Peters, and Berger also add greatly to the film, effortlessly inhabiting their characters and making them heartbreakingly three-dimensional figures. [More]
Starring: Lior Loui Ashkenazi, Knut Berger, Caroline Peters, Gideon Shemer
Starring: Lior Loui Ashkenazi, Knut Berger, Caroline Peters, Gideon Shemer, Eyal Rozzales
Director: Eytan Fox
Director: Eytan Fox
Screenwriter: Gal Uchovsky
Producer: Amir Harel
Composer: Ivri Lider
Studio: IDP Distribution
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Reviews for Walk on Water
Half a gem with its legs cut out from under it by its desire to have its cake and eat it, too.
If there are no simple solutions offered to calm Israel's troubles, there is still hope in this fine portrait of a country torn too many ways.
Though its characters aren't terribly complex, and its plot holds few surprises, the screenplay (in English, German, and Hebrew) amounts to a worthy treatise on the need to forgo revenge.
Fox's film seems to say that the kind of saintly purity that would enable one to walk on water -- or to kill with impunity and without repercussions -- doesn't exist.
Ultimately sinks under the weight of an unwieldy script and uncommunicative performances.
A compelling thriller that manages to incorporate a seemingly impossible bundle of disparate elements -- Jewish-Arab animosity, homophobia, the haunting aftershocks of the Holocaust, and the repercussions of suicide.
The past's hold on these people is examined with intelligence and insight, and the final scenes are quite touching.
Walk On Water deals with weighty subject matter without making it a heavy movie.
A film that brilliantly works the intersection of the personal and the political.
The film's themes are undermined by a heavy-handed use of paradox and symbolism.
It's a noble and humanizing work with an engaging and intimate tone and look.
For a film to tackle such a crazy quilt of ideas is perhaps certifiable. That it almost pulls it off is borderline miraculous.
Ambitious, troubled, worthy inquisition into the soul of modern Israel.
Watching, you can't help but feel the issues, the serious as well as the fun ones, are ill-served by the perfunctory examinations offered by the filmmaker.
Works best in isolated spots early on as a series of intriguing character studies.
Latest News for Walk on Water
July 27, 2005:
Spielberg Settles On "Munich"
Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures jointly announced today that the upcoming film being directed by three-time Academy Award-winning director-producer Steven Spielberg... More...
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| 52% 52% | The Taking of Pelham 1… |
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| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
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| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 45% 45% | Shorts |
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