“Come Closer,” winner of the Ophir (Israel’s Oscar) for Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Editing, automatically became Israel’s submission to the upcoming Oscars by winning Best Feature Film. It is about love and loss as seen through the eyes of two very different young women. Delving deep into the psyches of survivors, Tom Nesher, director and writer of the film, conveys a personal story, told on the heels of the loss of her own brother.
Eden is a wild child. Sexy, outrageous, unfettered by the restraints of society, she goes her own way, certain of her younger brother Nati’s approval and belief in the lack of boundaries she sets. As far as she is concerned, they have no secrets; they share everything. Ragged, raw, untethered, Eden demands attention and obedience. On Nati’s birthday, she has him kidnapped, terrifying him until he is released to her on a cliff overlooking the deep blue sea. She finds it hilarious; he, not so much. Eden exudes an almost incestuous adoration of Nati, one that clearly has him on edge, unnoticed by her. Finally escaping her bacchanal, he texts someone he is on his way. Distracted, a car slams into him and his young life ends almost before it begins.
Lost, angry, self-focused, Eden spends the evening after his funeral dancing with abandon at the techno nightclub she frequents on a daily basis. She would rather lose herself in her married lover’s arms than take the time to mourn, and if he won’t comply she’ll find others who will. When she suddenly learns that her brother had a girlfriend, someone he hid from her, she loses whatever small control she had over her emotions and determines to find this other person. Stalking her, she’s outraged by how ordinary this girl is. Her name is Maya and she lives with her mother. She is modest, studious and an inconceivable match for the beloved brother she thought she knew so well. Approaching her, at first with malice and eventually with curiosity, Eden is determined to unravel this other part of Nati’s life, one where he was the very picture of middle-class bourgeois desire—chaste girlfriend, pre-med aspirations, quiet evenings without the kind of drama that defines Eden. Maya is everything that Eden is not and the reverse is also true.
What Eden comes to recognize, however, is that a bond with Maya will keep Nati alive in both their hearts and minds and they begin to melt into one another. Eden is intent on turning Maya into her mirror image. Maya is her Pygmalion and she hasn’t got a chance.
Nesher has written a character study of Eden, an extremely flawed young woman. Throughout most of the film she is irredeemable, a classic example of clinical narcissistic personality disorder. Nesher gives us some insight into causation: a bitter divorce between the parents, a mother intent on self-healing to the disadvantage of her two children, a manipulative father and an obsessive relationship with a malleable younger sibling. While there may be extenuating circumstances, all we see is the end result: a toxic, unempathetic young woman who thinks nothing of upending the lives around her.
It is apparent that while Nesher intended to show the growth of Eden from oblivious to more cognizant of her behavior, she spent far too much time on the negative side, leaving not enough room to account for the growth she’d like us to believe Eden experiences over the time frame, with mourning rituals as the marking points from the funeral, to Shiva, to the one-month memorial, to the one-year visit to the graveside. There are two difficulties inherent in the way she approaches her subject. The first is that Eden is so unpleasant throughout most of the film that it’s difficult to stay with her. She’s just not someone you want to spend that much time with, and Nesher almost “lost me at hello,” to misuse a movie quote. The second is that by shortcutting Eden’s development to maturity and empathy, primarily experienced through the eyes and actions of Maya, she loses the kind of gradual character development Eden needs.
The production values are very good. Editing is smooth, costuming highlights Eden’s sensuality and the cinematography underscores the milestones experienced by Maya and Eden, highlighted by stunning scenery in the Sinai. Lia Elalouf, as Eden, in her debut performance, won the Best Leading Actress at the Ophirs and deservedly so. It is a performance that is unchained and fearless. Darya Rosenn, as Maya, played her character with believable warmth and empathy, showing a well-paced character growth that was, alas, missing in Eden, one that enhanced the film and carried the audience with her during her development. Both actresses should have long careers.
Nesher’s film rises and falls with Eden. She was so focused on the interesting, outrageous and egregious aspects of Eden’s personality that she left too little time for her to gradually grow, mature and recognize the damage she has caused. We see the end result but not enough of the development leading up to it. Eden has cut a swath of personal destruction that leaves little room for one single incident to sell the transition to empathy.
In Hebrew with English subtitles.
Opening Dec. 12 at the Laemmle Royal
