Pluskylang
Great Film overall
Beanbioca
As Good As It Gets
Curapedi
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
aFrenchparadox
It's fresh and pessimist in the meantime. Fresh for the hope this people have in peace. Fresh for their lifestyle denying the fear of the conflict any power on their life. Fresh in the sense it often makes you smile. Fresh because some people can stand up to avoid more sorrow to others. Pessimist because you will be reminded you that the conflict is blind, and doesn't select its victims. Pessimist because one person is not enough to change the situation. So if you need films to make you feel good, avoid. But if you like to come out of a film with a taste of bittersweet and some material for thinking, this film is totally for you.
hughman55
You could be forgiven for mistaking this low budget indie for a great film. "The Bubble" centers on two men, Noam and Ashwar, an Israle and Palestinian respectively, who meet, come together, and live a short fairy tale existence in the protective "bubble" of Tel Aviv. Their relationship is complicated by the Middle East tensions that we, in the U.S., have only a cursory knowledge of. Normal couples, in the early stages of their relationships, will struggle with who will call who next, , doubts of sincerity, or who will say "I love you" first. Noam and Ashwar's early love is complicated by suicide bombings, armed security check points, racism, and thousands of years of cultural hatred. While Noam's friends in Tel Aviv accept, and like, Ashwar, who is an Arab, it is clear that most of Tel Aviv's other citizenry don't. Ashwar adopts a Hebrew name, lives as Noam's boyfriend in secret, and works "under the table" at the "friend of a friend's" restaurant. One of the most touching moments in this film, and there are many, is when Noam and Ashwar attend a production of the play "Bent". We, as movie goers, see them watching this play, and the affect it has on the two of them is profoundly captured in their eyes. They watch two concentration camp prisoners, in the play, expressing their love for one another. Noam and Ashwar are prisoners too and the parallels are inescapable. This touching moment is ultimately played out in a very sad way later in the movie.Just as in the Shakespeare classic, the resentments, bodies, and vengeance pile to a crippling height. Without giving away too much of the storyline, one of the men is blackmailed into a collection of choices with no good outcome possible. Behind door number one - marry his brother in-law's sister - at the threat of being exposed as being gay and a social outcast to his family and community. Behind door number two, go back to his boyfriend in Tel Aviv, and a community that will never accept him, and that routinely abuses and discriminates against his people. It doesn't matter how much the one you love, loves you, when the world he live in hates you. And then there's door number three. With this choice he can become a hero instead of an outcast to his father, minimize the retaliation meant to avenge is sister's murder, and make sure that the fatalities are limited to just one. Or so he believes. Ohad Knoller and Youseff 'Joe' Sweid are outstanding as Noam and Ashwar. Director Eytan Fox is brilliant in creating an interesting and compelling retelling of the greatest romantic tragedy. The romance, sexuality, and sensuality are intense and passionate. It is so refreshing to see this kind of depth and honesty attributed to a gay couple. Ivri Lider renders a music score with the perfect touch of conventional romanticism that says, "love is universal". The most powerful force in this film, however, is the performance by Youseff "Joe" Sweid. He roils in the passions of his heart, the thousands of years of cultural hatred, and the calm place in his soul where his love for Noam rests. Sweid, through Ashwar, shows what it's like to have your heart and your life in complete contradiction with one another. He shows what it's like to find peace for the first time and then discover that peace is a lonely place for some. He is the ultimate outcast in an unforgiving, and undeserving, world. This is a very good film. It has heart, and heartbreak. And like all good love stories, love does win out. But not with the intact glory of it's full bloom. Everlasting love is too complicated for that. Still, though, they will be together forever.
Franco-LA
I've seen nearly all of this director's film and found somethings that were not to my taste in all of them. This particular film, because it focus on a political conflict with religious and historical reaches that go back centuries, will never be simply viewed as a piece of art, but for the purpose of this review, I will limit my comments to technical ones regarding the film, performances, scripts, production, etc.Technically, this is a very proficient film. The performances are, for the most part, uniformly good, particularly among the leads and most of the significant supporting characters. The description of it by some users as a sort of Sex In The City / Friend's hybrid is only correct to the extent that parts of the movie have that vibe and such relationships are universal, irrespective of whether the friends are in New York, Tel Avi, Buenos Aires or Tokyo. However, this movie is not a situation comedy by any stretch of anyone's imagination, nor does it resolves its problems in neat, compact story arcs. The script presents many interesting and intriguing elements. Where it takes liberties, it is clear that these are necessary to move the story forward.The movie is watchable and well-made. It's certainly worth the rental and certainly thought- provoking. However, I cannot give it a strong recommendation purely for the fact that it disappointed me greatly in certain key parts, particularly the ending.
okrim37
It's difficult to not have a liking for Israeli director Eytan Fox and for his movies, which describe the life in the middle east and the inherent problems gay people can have in these regions. Besides he also gave voice to the young generations, and to the remarkable part of them, who really need PEACE and who want to take no further notice of a war that for too much time marked the existences of people, both in Israel both in Palestine. These reasons, in my opinion, are sufficient to consider Fox a noteworthy director, even when his feeling for the melodrama is a tad out of control. However the fans of his movies (that he realized on team with Gal Uchovsky, his producer, co-screenwriter and also life companion) seem to not being vexed by this, since his new feature, THE BUBBLE (HA-BUAH), is having the same success of the previous YOSSI & JAGGER and WALK ON THE WATER. Announced as a contemporary gay version of "Romeo & Juliet", set in the present day Tel Aviv instead of Verona and with two men (one Israeli and the other Palestinian) at the place of the two Shakespearean young lovers, the film actually is quite different from that or, better, it's also something else. In fact the bubble of the title is the world apart in which the leading man, Noam, played by the Fox regular Ohad Knoller (Yossi in YOSSI & JAGGER, but I must confess I miss Jagger, the astonishing Yehuda Levi!) and his two co-tenants, a guy and a girl, chose to live. Around thirty-years-old, restless, witty and firm (despite the protagonist just spent a period as national service in a checkpoint on the frontier with the Palestine) to live a life that won't be only made of war. The two guys are gay and along with the girl they have established a trio in which they brotherly love and support each other. Their lives are destined to change when Noam falls in love with Ashraf (the TV star Yousef 'Joe' Sweid) a young Palestinian who came to live in Tel Aviv. The laws so far in force among the group are neglected, but not the will to aid one friend. Still it won't be easy for Noam and his friends, 'cause Ashraf is clandestine in Israel and in the meantime his family, who lives in Palestine and doesn't know he's gay, is looking forward to settle his wedding with a very beautiful girl, who is a relative of Ashraf's beloved sister bridegroom-to-be, who he is also a terrorist and he will have a strong liability in the development of the plot, with consequences not just for the two men. Because the prejudices against the homosexuality and the peace (interesting dualism, if not automatic) are stubborn and so the tragedy is unavoidable. Even if the film focus on the obstacles the relationship between Noam and Ashraf meets with, it doesn't the overlook the other characters, which turn out well written (for example Golan, the boyfriend of Yelli, Noam's fellow tenant, introduced as a lively boor, and then disclosed as a sweeter and more open minded person) and aptly performed (besides the two leads, we mustn't disregard the funny Zohar Liba and the lovely Daniela Virtzer, the girl of the gang; moreover LATE MARRIAGE's star Lior Ashkenazi appears as himself in a cameo). It also melds the gloomy tones with the more brilliant ones, even if the director can't do without a melodramatic conclusion. I watched this movie more than a month ago and in the meantime I often thought about it, proof that Fox and his pal have a knack to strike home.
