Odelecol
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
SanEat
A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."
Invaderbank
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
dannorgaard
If you have watched more than a handful of movies, chances are that you will have had this one figured out from the word 'go'. This movie is amateurish, predictable and downright boring. Crammed with clichés and stereotypical characters, the only "saving grace" is the fact that it deals with one of the most complicated and delicate historical issues known to man. The story line is about as exciting as retelling your own visit to the loo. The hammy acting brings to mind the 'versatility' of actors such as Van Damme or Seagal. In other words, armchairs evoke more heartrending feelings than they do. Extremely heavy handed and above all a total waste of time.
bobgeorge1
Walk on Water is summarised well in many reviews. Some of them avow and generate extremes by using terms like "Terrorist". The film grapples with extremes of prejudice. The Mossad agent Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi) assassinates a Hamas leader at the start of the film returning home to find his wife has committed suicide. Eyal is detached. He has to be to do his job. His boss Menachem gives him a safer temporary job of pretending to be a tour guide for the grandchildren of a Nazi war criminal, Alfred Himmelman, with the idea that the tourists will lead him to their grandfather.This German brother and sister with their own issues open up the eyes of Eyal to his own prejudices; he is challenged by Axel Himmelmans (Knut Berger) sexuality. He is also challenged by Axel's sister Pia (Carolina Peters), a German lass who lives and works on a kibbutz in Israel.I saw this film on television. I chanced upon it with no reviews or prior knowledge and got quite gripped by the tensions of the main character. Other reviewers have said that Lior Ashkenazi is an attractive actor.What intrigued me was the struggle to let go of being hurt. I've been working with a couple who can't let go of their anger with each other; of the hurt that comes through being violated in different ways. I'm not sure that love overcomes everything is quite the answer. I'm not sure that this film answers that question although it does highlight it so well.It felt like a film in black and white; lots of deep shadows and in the end...well go see and decide
ThurstonHunger
What makes this an interesting film, may also make this an impossible film. To try and fit in all the feelings of Jews and Germans into an hour-and-a-half film, and then come up with some sort of resolution...well, good luck.Additionally mix in tensions between Palestine and Israel, work in a homosexual angle and there is a lot at stake.Still this film fares decently, I think led by fairly authentic characterizations by its actors. The lead role is most discussed here on IMDb, but I thought the German siblings were as germane to the film and more believable. Apologies to all the world's hit men, but whether Mossad or Mafia, the mindset of a murderer is not one I'm generally eager to explore.As said murderer, Lior Ashkenazi has to fight the power of Tom Cruise. His "Eytal" could have easily stuck to the stylish macho persona who then glides through a airtight instant epiphany, but instead Ashkenazi allows for some awkwardness and even self-recrimination. Using the foil of Axel's (portrayed by Knut Burger) happy homosexuality was a nice way to unravel Eytal.Axel is the most comfortable character on screen; likely as his cinematic parents, aka director Eytan Fox and screenwriter Gal Uchovsky, are a gay couple. Here is an interview with Uchovsky for what it's worthhttp://hotzOne.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs2559On that gay front, Axel is an interesting character, almost a patron saint of homosexuality. Spouting off a parable of peace, sleeping with men almost less for ass and more as an ambassador (his survey of penises of the world almost feels like a papal tour). Axel is almost a little too darling, maybe new to Middle Eastern filmgoers, but in America that feels very early 90's to me. We've moved on to gay couples every bit as messed up as straight couples, see "Six Feet Under" perhaps?Ultimately it's hard to disagree with a film that makes a case for getting to know "the enemy" on some personal level, but it is also hard to get overwhelmed about such a film as well. There is also a notion of *who* must atone for crimes gone by, you'll know the answer.Some of the small side aspects of the film were of note, how (perhaps) folks living with the daily specter of a suicide bomber might react, versus folks (like myself and Axel in the film) find the concept so alien and unnerving. The bargaining in the stalls/bazaars. The notion that some Israeli's went to Germany on a field trip, that sounded like something maybe based on fact. Some serious generation gaps growing in the German family here...It's when the film gets caught up in the plot, that I disagree with others here...this does sort of feel like a Hollywood movie, in a weird way. Expensive soundtrack tie-in, the aforementioned hallowed homosexual, the tidy finish...still it was worth watching, it tosses a lot of balls in the air...even if it doesn't catch them all. I wonder if in the first pass, the filmmakers flirted with the idea of making this a love story, and then introduced the sister for us breeders?6/10 Thurston Hunger
Galina
"Walk on Water" is courageous film, confidently directed by Eytan Fox based on the screenplay written by his partner Gal Uchovsky and well acted. Its subject is a Mossad's agent whose new mission is to hunt the former Nazi criminal who lives nowadays somewhere in South America. In order to trace him, Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi) takes a job as a tourist guide for the grandson of war criminal - sociable, open, friendly young German, Axel. Axel arrives to Israel to visit his sister Pia who chose to live in Israel and work in a kibbutz and to talk her into reconciling with their parents. Eyal drives Alex in his SUV, shows him the country. They sit on the coast of Dead Sea, both smeared by celebrated therapeutic mud from neck to toes. In another scene, Alex tries to walk on the water of Kinarteth (the Sea of Galilee); three of them visit the gay- bar in Tel Aviv - Alex does not hide his sexual orientation.The characters are interesting and compelling. The story is engaging and I feel connected to the movie the way very few movies make me. I recognize the places I've been to and I've come to love and to dream of seeing them again and again. The film starts in Istanbul, Turkey on the boat over the Bosphor and the guide talks about the bridge between Europe and Asia. I've been on the boat like that and I saw the bridge. Then the action takes place in Israel and I was happy to recognize Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, The Sea of Galilee (Kinereth), The Dead Sea where one just floats without swimming, the desert.The plot moves from Israel to Berlin where Eyal is visiting with his new friend's family. Alex's and Pia's father celebrates his anniversary and for the first time, a helpless dying old man arrives to Berlin, the Nazi criminal, Axel's and Pia's grandfather, Eyal's target. The film explores the moral dead ends of the modern society full of hostility and old unpaid debts. Eyal remembers the history of his country and its people, he knows not from the books about Holocaust. He is a soldier and must be merciless but he has to learn something about understanding from his young German friend. Film attracts by the non-standard approach to the familiar themes of religious prejudices, homophobia, neo-fascism, newest terror and other sources of the hatred, which destroys the world. It would not surprise me to find out that the film has many detractors in Germany, Palestine, and in Israel. The final is a little too neat and belongs to the modern fairy tale genre. I see it as the director's dream that he wanted to come true - the people with different backgrounds, mentalities, history, and preferences would understand one another and would come toward one another with the open hearts and clean thoughts. Dreams, dreams...
