Golda

Directed by Guy Nattiv, Golda follows Helen Mirren’s Golda Meir as she’s forced to make a series of impossible decisions during the 1970s’ Yom Kippur War. Filmmaker Nattiv, working from a screenplay by Nicholas Martin, delivers an often astonishingly dry endeavor that contains few, if any, appealing attributes and elements, and there’s little doubt, certainly, that the movie’s arms-length atmosphere is perpetuated by an ongoing lack of context and character development – with the Wikipedia-like bent of Martin’s screenplay only exacerbating the completely and perpetually uninvolving vibe. (The film is dominated by scene after scene of one-dimensional figures having meetings in various conference rooms, ultimately.) And although Mirren offers up a predictably solid turn as the complex title figure, Golda squanders the actress’ layered work by drowning her in over-the-top and consistently distracting makeup (which even includes chubby lower legs!) – with the end result a mostly interminable misfire that does little to capture the interest of most viewers (ie the movie practically demands a pre-existing interest in its subject matter).

*1/2 out of ****