Time of Favor
dir. Joseph Cedar
Fri-Thurs July 5-11 at the Grand Illusion.

Joseph Cedar's Time of Favor, which swept the 2000 Israeli Academy Awards, wants desperately to qualify as a sensitive appraisal of life on an Israeli settlement. Unfortunately, the film delivers this meditation wrapped up in a heart-stopping thriller cum defiant romance--and there's nothing like sex masquerading as rebellion to weigh a story down. Compelling ideas lie buried beneath these formulaic trappings, and in a perfect world, Time of Favor would have teased out the force of personality necessary for Orthodox Rabbi Meltzer (Assi Dayan) to inadvertently inspire his star yeshiva student, Pini, to bomb a mosque. Instead, the film allows that terrifying act of persuasion to slip into the background, and we are made to endure the seduction of Pini's best friend, Menachem (Aki Avni), a hunky officer in the Israeli army.

Aki Avni and his co-star, a Tel Aviv celebrity who calls herself Tinkerbell, have a good deal of chemistry, and their first scene together promises an entertaining, if slight, romance to come. Tinkerbell plays Michal, the daughter of Rabbi Meltzer, who has promised her to Pini as a reward for his outstanding Torah scholarship. But Michal (who always looks like she just stepped out of a J. Crew catalogue) doesn't want to be Pini's trophy wife; she wants to be Menachem's. A ridiculously chaste flirtation commences, with Michal and Menachem engaging in shadow play (the no-contact version of footsie, apparently) until they get all gooey and Michal runs away from home.

The third act of the film, when the "thriller" part gets underway, is the most entertaining. There are generous helpings of second-century tunnels and explosive devices, plus one beautiful woman. But even this fail-safe combination is marred by an obtrusive soundtrack and heavy-handed direction. In Cedar's biggest miscalculation, a moment of sublime tension droops suddenly as Menachem sails into the air in slow motion.

It would have been intriguing to see a movie that gets into the heads of those Israelis who choose to live on the fringe of both Israeli-occupied territory and socially acceptable behavior. But Time of Favor doesn't make it much beyond mere Hollywood clichés.