Mirren’s prosthetics and powerhouse performance dominate Meir drama
Golda (M, 100 mins) Directed by Guy Nattiv Reviewed by James Croot ***½
So much has changed in the eight months since I first saw Guy Nattiv’s evocative and provocative portrait of Israel’s fourth prime pinister and her handling of 1973’s Yom Kippur War.
But while the ongoing events in Gaza have perhaps added an extra poignancy and resonance to this tale, they’ve also probably made it a harder sell (something reflected by its delayed and rather limited cinematic release after its debut at last year’s British and Irish Film Festival).
Still, as a history lesson (as well as a reminder of the old adage that those who do not learn from it are condemned to repeat it) – and part primer/backgrounder for what’s happening in the Middle East now – it does offer fascinating viewing.
It’s a story framed by Golda Meir’s (Helen Mirren) testimony before the 1974 Agranat Commission of Inquiry into her conduct before and during the biggest crisis of her then five-year reign.
Just how were the Israeli government and military caught out so badly by a surprise attack by combined Arab forces (led by Egypt and Syria) on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur (October 6) the year before?
Battling conflicting advice, diplomatic issues with an America worried that any overt support would result in their oil supply being cut off and her own ill-health, Meir quickly knew that, unlike their last major “trouble with their neighbours” (as Liev Schreiber’s US diplomat Henry Kissinger so pithily puts it), this “won’t be over within a week”.
While screenwriter Nicholas Martin’s (Florence Foster Jenkins) dialogue occasionally veers into the territory known as overly portentous, Nattiv’s (2018’s Skin) use of monochrome, audio and the smoke generated by Meir’s nicotine addiction (which, in one segue, dissolves into “the fog of war”) both enhances and benefits greatly from the script’s tight focus.
In that respect it reminded me of Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour, a character study and a ticking-clock political thriller as escalating events threaten to undermine an already under-pressure leader.
In the end, though, what you make of Golda comes down to your take on Mirren’s prosthetics-enhanced, undoubtedly powerhouse performance as the (what is now known as) Ukraineborn, Milwaukee-raised Meir that dominates the film.
Golda is in select cinemas nationwide.