Konterr Brilliant and touching

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

SnoopyStyle Mosab Hassan Yousef is the eldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a leader of Hamas. He is caught running guns at 17 and imprisoned by the Israelis. He is shocked to find Hamas torturing people suspected of being informers. Israel's security service Shin Bet is able to recruit him and Gonen Ben Yitzhak becomes his handler.I didn't know anything about this story before watching this movie. I honestly figured that this is a fictionalized account with actors for the first half hour. The style is very plain with Mosab and Gonen talking straight into the camera. The story is so compelling that it is utterly riveting. I do wonder why he did what he did. He gives explanations and hints but I'm not sure if there is something more.

Lucie Carpenter Mosab's story is a poignant one, and the documentary certainly does the relationship which developed between Mosab and Gonen justice, as do the actors who portray them in the interview scenes. However, the choice of episodic structuring regarding Mosab's story was not, in my opinion, justified, and it gave the plot a confused, hit-and-miss vibe. Some of the episodes were completely devoid of a key element which would justify their presence, and in the end it made the plot seem more piecemeal than it was. Naturally, when telling a true story, one cannot expect the same plot twists seen in Hollywood, but there are better ways to approach the construction of a real-life story than the one chosen in the making of this documentary. It's worth watching, but more out of credit to Mosab than the documentary.

Hind Bensari I had very high expectations. I mean, what a story? The son of a Hamas leader turned informant was openly talking about his involvement with the Shin Bet! Waw. Unfortunately, The Green Prince didn't deliver. Instead of understanding the psychology of an informant, the reasons for turning against his family so easily, we are left with a recounting of events, that is incomplete in providing us with a full picture of such a political and personal move. Mosab, the informant, gives the impression to be highly disturbed, in need of attention and recognition, and ready to grab any opportunity that would give him such comfort. The way the character was presented offered no depth, or thought-provoking arguments. The handler, Gonen, is the hero, the one who went against the shin-bet, or what he called "his family" to save the Palestinian, his "friend". No further explanation as to why he felt the urge to go against the rules for the informant, and the film-makers were largely satisfied with the "it was my duty" answer, instead of digging further into his personality. Not a complete fail, but feels like a partial recounting of events, that does not offer any emotional or contextual depth which would have made it one of the year's most astounding story told.

lesdroits Saw this premier weekend in New York. Promised to be - and was promoted by NYTimes as being - fascinating "thriller". Was neither fascinating nor a thriller, but instead appeared a boring amateur production. Unlike effective documentaries, there was no third party speaker or voice over putting things together in context but ONLY two talking heads (Mosad and his hander) which made up almost the entire movie, plus occasional shots of a map of the affected area, some short news clips showing Mosad's father speaking, a small bit of headline news, and then the same shot -- repeated over and over throughout the movie -- of a man, presumably Mosad, and a white car he gets into after walking along. So for the duration of the movie, it was basically just Mosad talking, then his former handler talking, Mosad, handler, Mosad, handler. And the discussion didn't really even make all that clear what should have been the pivotal point of the movie --what it was that "turned" Mosad. There was so little discussion on that point that, if you tended to nod off, as many were doing in the theater, you likely missed it. No Ken Burns here. Not even close. You come away from this non-gripping film understanding little more than you did from just reading a summary of the movie. New York Times reviewer--did you even watch it?