David O'ConnellNoodle
June 29th 2010 05:05
Suddenly you find yourself left with the custody of a stranger’s child. What do you do? In Ayelet Menahemi’s Noodle, this odd and unexpected dilemma is exacerbated by fact that this 6 year-old boy (BaoQi Chen) can’t converse in the same language as Israeli air hostess Miri (Mili Avital).
After returning home from her latest assignment, Miri’s Chinese cleaner receives a phone call before begging to be released to run a seemingly urgent errand. She leaves her young son in Miri’s care, promising to return in an hour. But she never returns, having seemingly vanished from the face of the earth, and thus creating a very sticky situation for Miri and her co-tenant, older sister Gila (Anat Waxman).
Racking their brains, they explore every option to trace the woman’s whereabouts, but come up empty handed. The lone course of action they choose to ignore involves contacting the police. Both are afraid that if the cleaner can’t be located then the ramifications for the boy will be too severe, severing any viable means of finding his way to safety from a foreign country.
A glaring cultural divide prevents any progress from being made initially. The boy, whom they nickname ‘Noodle’, is defiantly uncommunicative, cocooning himself in the grief he feels at being abandoned by his mother and left in the care of strangers whose words are alien to him. The sisters’ combined efforts to extract helpful tidbits of information from Noodle prove futile initially.
In time, however, they’re able to cleverly negotiate around some of these obstacles once Noodle becomes resigned to his short-term fate at least. Methodically they begin to prise him open, even extracting a smile or two. Miri’s fortuitous meeting with Mati (Yiftach Klein), an ex-lover of Gila’s who is now a famous writer and just happens to be fluent in basic Chinese, further opens the channels of communication.
Noodle may be, ostensibly, a film about the bond that develops between Miri and the boy, but the relationship between the two sisters is just as vital to its success. Miri and Gila often rub one another the wrong way; much of the tension between them stems from the persistence of Gila’s estranged husband Izzy (Alon Aboutboul) and his obvious interest in the younger Miri. Gila insists they’re a perfect match, but her suggestion works like a bitter, barely-concealed accusation that Miri insists is false.
You get the impression both women are resilient types, having confronted glaring voids in their lives; Gila has a teenage daughter but the regular appearance of Izzy is a painful reminder of her failed marriage. Similarly Miri constantly battles with the pain of twice being widowed by husbands who lost their lives in war.
Menahemi keeps the film firmly grounded in reality, yet never ignoring the need to alleviate any potential glumness with humour, mostly in the form of Gila’s quick-witted cynicism. Noodle too works his way into their hearts, his silences offset by mournful innocence and sad puppy-dog eyes. Both Avital and Waxman are rock solid in the leads and thoroughly believable as sisters too. Young Chen, chosen from 2000 candidates for the role, is a natural in front of a camera, displaying good instincts for one so young.
The resolution seemingly required a novel creative twist to overcome the threat of stasis as Noodle’s quest becomes more hopeless; this despite the fact that a strengthening bond with Miri has superficially healed much of his distress. Certainly Menahemi does deliver a memorable third act, albeit in a necessarily contrived manner. Co-written with Shemi Zarhin, the screenplay's most important deflection of attention is one that requires a leap of faith to uphold its implausibility. But the sincerity of this heart-melting tale weaves a kind of magic and I was willing to overlook this tenuous juxtaposition of fate, good fortune and circumstance to submerge myself in Miri’s daring sacrificial journey.
The final moments resonate with the humanistic spirit that drives this film. You’ll have to be made of stern stuff to avoid a soggy meltdown of your own. Noodle (2007) is yet another excellent Israeli film following in the wake of recent critically lauded works like The Lemon Tree (2008), Strangers (2007), and that truly magnificent duo, Waltz with Bashir (2008) and The Band’s Visit (2007).
Noodle has recently been released on DVD by Madman Entertainment.
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Comment by Deni
Abstract Magick
Cinema Herald
Hopefully I can find this with English subtitles where I am.
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
Mili Avital is very good, I'm looking forward to seeing more of her work. I notice she's been in a few other films I've seen but I wasn't really aware of her - until now!
I don't know who's cuter in this film, the kid or Mili's dog! (I read in an interview that the boy who played Noodle actually hates dogs! He certainly does a good job of convincing otherwise!
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic