No doubt about it, the make a wish foundation (and its equivalents) are truly a blessing. I'm not being cynical here, I truly believe their mission is god's work. Making dreams come true for little kids who are less than fortunate (putting it VERY mildly) is really the best thing we could do for them. Of course, for every kid it's a different wish, sometimes they want to meet the president, sometimes they want to be a doctor for one day, sometimes the just wish to be on board an aircraft etc.
The wish of Eyal, a 14-year-old kid with leukemia, is a vague desire not to die a virgin. Not your usual "make-a-wish" material which I find very bewildering since dying a virgin is the biggest fear among most teenagers (in severe cases, that fear thrives even when they are in their 20's and writing movie reviews on the Internet but that's irrelevant).
Fortunately, Eyal's friends are devoid of political correctness and adult prude and followed by the warped conscious of the nightmare-buddy Duba (The wonderful Adam Hirch) the dream of finding Eyal a mating partner becomes the mission of Eyal's teen-aged friends.
One of them, Sahar, has his own demons too face, his father, being fired from the Israeli aircraft industries, works on his own project and becomes even more distant and out-of-it loon than before, his mother is having clandestine discussions on the phone with a doctor. Discussions that aren't of a medicinal nature. His best friend is the mentioned above, Duba and on top of it all, Sahar falls in love with a jubilant girl who is a walking almanac, citing every survey that was ever done on the subject at hand.
Sahar's story is the story of every testosterone crazed, insecure, teenager and the search for the, hmmm, professional "wish maker" woman is exactly what accentuates the naiveness of its protagonists. That's where the movie pushes the right buttons for the viewer. The more the teenagers are in search of the prostitute, the more the story becomes a tribute to the lost era where friendships were carved in iron and feeling passionate about something, anything (other than money) was a common practice.
Given all that, it's no surprise that the teen-aged actors are the ones who give the superb script the genuineness it deserves. The "grown-ups" in the film give pretty lukewarm performances. I feel a little uncomfortable criticizing Avi Nesher, One of the most prominent and gifted Israeli directors but in this film, Nesher (Who directed my all time favorite Israeli film "Halehaka" and portrays Sahar's father in this movie) found himself on the wrong side of the camera. There is nothing less compelling than watching a character that doesn't have character.
I won't reveal how the movie turns out but I will note that this movie, aided with gifted child actors, a masterful script and a very reserved direction is a delight to watch and to ponder of. I expected the film to be much more emotionally draining than it was but despite that, it's still a wonderful treat if only for the slightest of rekindling of the little kid inside that was missing- presumed dead. I'm pretty sure that if there was a make as wish foundation for adults that's exactly what most of them would have wished for.
8.5 out of 10 in my FilmOmeter.
In case you were wondering why I suggested that this film is the best Israeli movie you will never get to see, well, this movie had a horrific incomprehensible trailer that made it look like something David Lynch had directed (which is not a compliment by any means). As a result the public steered clear of it and the movie was a colossal commercial failure. So odds are that you will see it aired on television or stranded in the far corner of the video library, disregard it and watch something else instead.
Your loss.
