Israeli filmmaker Shirel Peleg debut feature is full of good intentions but cannot avoid tripping over itself with its overabundance of cliches that tests one’s patience far too much before the final credits roll. What starts out as a lesbian rom-com between an unlikely pair of women turns into a comic farce that with everyone focusing on their deeply held prejudices which, until the last few moments of the film, seem so firmly entrenched that there appears no room for compromise or even forgiveness.
Newbie German lesbian Maria (Luise Wolfram) who is a PhD student in Tel Aviv is about to move in with her girlfriend of four months, Israeli lesbian bar owner Shira (Moran Rosenblatt). Just to make the point that Shira is very ‘popular,’ every single girl the pair bump into turns out to be yet another ‘ex’ of hers.
There is a misunderstanding which Shira believes is meant to be a wedding proposal which she happily escapes to the consternation of her devoted grandmother and Luisa herself. The whole thought of an impending lesbian wedding between a German and an Israeli jew allows both of their families to vent all their ugly prejudices.
The Holocaust and World War 2 are never far from the minds and conversations of the parents, subjects that prove too difficult for Peleg to handle in the middle of this comic scenario. It’s both awkward and clumsy and made even worse by her insistence of changing tack at the last minute to give the closet thing to a conventional happy ever after ending.
Kudos to the two leads for their committed performances, but at the end of the day, they look as convinced as we did about the while authenticity of this uncomfortable and awkward piece.
Now it kind of makes sense to us why the film’s original title was dropped: it was Kiss Me Before It Blows UP!
