Toronto. Disengagement.

"Juliette Binoche, who is battling Nicole Kidman in the race to see who can do more work with the world's artiest, most intellectual filmmakers, stars as an Israeli-born woman in Paris who returns to the country of her birth to find the daughter she gave up for adoption 20 years before," writes Howard Feinstein, reviewing Amos Gitai's Disengagement for Filmmaker. "Being an Oscar winner and therefore valued prop, Binoche wanders through an Orthodox settlement, even among praying men in a synagogue for no discernible reason, and it is clear from reaction shots in several scenes that she hasn't a clue what people addressing her in Hebrew or Arabic are saying. These misfires and Gitai's usual pretense irritate."

Binoche is "fantastic in Hou Hsiao-hsien's Flight of the Red Balloon, and she's the only reason to watch Amos Gitai's Disengagement," writes Patrick Z McGavin at Stop Smiling. "The Israeli-born, French-based Gitai has talent and verve, but his best films (Kadosh, Kippur) are very specific and precise. Of late, he's been fascinated by the issue of Israel's existence, as a moral and spiritual issue.... The movie's a train wreck, but you can't take your eyes off of [Binoche]."

Karl Rozemeyer has a long talk with Binoche for Premiere.

Earlier: Reviews from Venice.

Posted by dwhudson at September 22, 2007 5:09 AM