The Bubble (2007)

2 Stars (out of 4)

'Bubble' Jeopardy

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

In my review of Eytan Fox's breakthrough feature, the 70-minute war film Yossi & Jagger, I compared it to films by Edgar G. Ulmer and Samuel Fuller, for its energy and economy. But when Fox moved on to a bigger budget and Walk on Water (2005), he allowed too much talk and too much exposed film to do the job for him. Sadly, he continues that trend with his new The Bubble, a romantic drama that runs a full two hours. (He has abandoned Ulmer and Fuller in favor of Don Roos.) The story centers around three Tel Aviv roommates, but mainly Noam (Ohad Knoller), an army reservist who has just returned from a depressing gig working a checkpoint. There, he meets the Palestinian Ashraf (Yousef "Joe" Sweid), who turns up in Tel Aviv, crashes in Noam's bed and lands a job despite his lack of papers. The beautiful Lulu (Daniela Wircer) wonders why her latest sexual partner, an editor at Time Out magazine, isn't calling her back. Meanwhile, a sweet young fellow swoons over her and she doesn't notice. The third roommate is the queeny Yali (Alon Friedmann), the typical gay comic relief character with all the "liberated" dialogue, who doesn't seem inspired by his perfectly nice boyfriend. Between bouts of relationship-related dialogue, the roomies take to the streets to organize a "Rave for Peace," which basically turns into a party for their friends. It's at this event that Fox begins to capture a mood, rather than chatter. This mood, a kind of youthful glow, returns again and again, but not enough to overcome the simpleminded bits. Fox may still have some good movies in him, but The Bubble isn't one of them.

DVD Details: Strand's DVD comes with two trailers (U.S. and Israeli), a 34-minute making-of featurette, and a music video ("The Man I Love").