Review: Foxtrot

Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

Apparently based upon an incident in which director Samuel Maoz sent his daughter some years ago to a bus stop to ride to school, only to learn that the bus was attacked by terrorists, and then later find out that his daughter had not boarded the bus, "Foxtrot" is an equally depressing and comedic film on the circumstances of fate amid the horrors of war. It's the type of film that builds and builds and eventually pays off, even if the building often takes a little longer than it should.

As the film opens, Israeli father Michael Feldmann (Lior Ashkenazi) and his wife, Daphna (Sarah Adler), receive a knock at the door from some Israeli military representatives, who tell the couple that their son, Jonathan (Yonaton Shiray), has been killed. Daphna faints and is taken to bed, while Michael sits and stews at the absurd bureaucratic response from the military folks who have shown up at his door. Their constant insistence that he drink water every hour on the hour - even going as far as timing his cell phone for him to alert him when it's time to take a drink - as a method of coping is both good for a laugh and unsettling.

"Foxtrot" is split into three thirds. During the first, Michael and Daphna deal with their grief and are told how their son's funeral ceremony will be carried out. Michael's brother attempts to help, but ends up being more of a hindrance. Then, something that shocks the couple even more than their son's death occurs. They are told that there has been a mistake, and that Jonathan is actually alive. This leaves Daphna euphoric and Michael furious at the military's bumbling.

We then cut to a desert scene, where several young soldiers are posted and spend days in boredom. The young men sit and stare as a camel crosses back and forth along the road, where they are tasked with inspecting cars that pass through. The young men take their pleasure by discussing naked women and masturbation - Jonathan provides a classic story involving his father, a Bible that survived the Holocaust and a nudie magazine - and watching a can roll through their place of lodging, due to its imbalance caused by sinking into the earth. If the first third of the picture took a little too long to get where it was going, the second half is partly humorous, but also fraught with tension. Then, during one of the young mens' inspections, a tragedy occurs.

The final sequence of the picture takes us back to Michael and Daphna, who have received further news about their son's whereabouts. The two of them smoke pot together and engage in long silences at their kitchen table. Although this sequence is the least action oriented, it's also the most successful. The film has utilized the tension of the first two scenes to arrive at this one, which is powerful and moving. "Foxtrot" then ends on a note that brings its two tones together in a scene that is absurdly tragic.

If "Foxtrot" is imperfect, it is because it's first third takes up more time than it should, while its second sequence could have gone on longer. It's the final third of the picture that acts as the heart of the film and is, therefore, the most effective and most powerful.

Maoz's previous film was "Lebanon," a picture that was set entirely in an Israeli tank. Both that film and "Foxtrot" prove that the director has a unique take on the modern state of Israel, although this film has a universal quality to it. With "Foxtrot," Maoz has taken a personal incident and used it to comment on the current state of affairs in his home country, the grieving process and the absurdity of war. And, for the most part, it works.