Free Zone

A colossal misfire of epic proportions, Free Zone is an interminable, pointless, and thoroughly dull film revolving around three women in the Middle East (played by Natalie Portman, Hanna Laslo, and Hiam Abbas). Director Amos Gitaï imbues Free Zone with an almost nonstop barrage of poor directorial choices, something that’s compounded by the astoundingly inane dialogue (to paraphrase a line from Steve Martin in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, this dialogue isn’t even interesting accidentally). The film kicks off with a self-indulgent, seemingly endless shot of Portman’s character sobbing, and only gets worse from there. Gitaï’s use of handheld cinematography feels claustrophobic and amateurish right from the get-go, although that’s not even as bad as his decision to superimpose three images over each other for absurdly prolonged periods of time (eg a POV shot of a car driving is layered with a shot of Portman’s character staring out the window, which is layered with two characters talking). Making things worse (which hardly even seems possible) is the complete and total lack of interesting characters, as Portman and her two co-stars play figures that aren’t even remotely developed (Portman’s character is from New York, and that’s virtually all we learn about her). Add to that a truly grating performance from Laslo (who comes off as a stereotypical and utterly obnoxious Jewish mother), and you’ve got a recipe for an unquestionably awful, awful film.

no stars out of ****