"A Tale of Love and Darkness" is a co-production between Israel and the United States that resulted in a Hebrew-language film that had its world premiere last year (2015). It runs for 95 minutes approximately and was written and directed by Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman and looking at her own ethical and local background where she is from, it is no surprise that the focus is clearly on Jewry and Israel. But this is only half the truth I would say. The first 40 minutes, maybe even the first half, is the most Jewish film you will see all year with the focus on food, life, traditions, politics, phrases and many other references. They even explained some stuff to the audience in a somewhat clumsy attempt of having a father explain something to his son. The second half then is much more of a family drama as it focuses for the most part on the illness of Portman's character. Yes she also plays the female protagonist in here and only looking at the second half, you could even say the central character. In the first half, it is probably the boy. Anyway, I am not sure if my criticisms with this film are more to blame on Portman or on Amos Oz the man whose memoir the film is based on. I have not read the latter, but I guess it may be a mix of both. The really dramatic moments almost all went wrong. Kids playing around and even if one of them gets accidentally slightly hurt will not result in a crisis as it is depicted in this film with the swing scene. Another example would be the scene when Israel gets approved to exist as a country by the other countries. This was such a pivotal moment, but it was just included. It was just there and there was absolutely no build-up or mention of this process earlier and this kept it from being as effective as it could have been and felt very forgettable as a consequence. other examples would be the killings of a woman and boy which felt included just for the sake of it and in a way that we would not forget that times were harsh and dangerous. And an even bigger problem are perhaps the dialogues and also the voice-overs because these sound as pretentious as the film's title and they are there on many many occasions. One of the weakest moments was probably when the boy (in the center of the story) tells the other children this parable. It's just not working and did not feel authentic coming from a boy that age. I also don't believe it is subjective opinion, it just did not feel real and this was a problem I had on several occasions. As a consequence, I did not care half as much for the characters as I hoped I would. Overall, I believe it is an okay effort for a rookie filmmaker like Portman who has never made a full feature film before, but by general standards, this was not a good watch and if she decides to make more films in the future, i hope she can improve considerably. I don't recommend watching "A Tale of Love and Darkness". Thumbs down.

Greetings again from the darkness. The establishment of the state of Israel and the memoir of Amos Oz are the foundation of the feature film directorial debut of Natalie Portman. First time directors don't typically fight over such source material, but it has always seemed that Ms. Portman was headed towards bigger (and more important) things.

She was born in Jerusalem and this story opens in that city during 1945. The narrator is the elderly Amos and the story is told through the eyes of young Amos (a very effective Amir Tessler) … though the focus is on his mother Fania (played by Ms. Portman).

The tensions between Jews and Arabs are ever-present, but this is the mostly personal and intimate struggle of Fania and her family. She has survived the atrocities of the Holocaust, though many of her family and friends did not. In fact, her inability to overcome this past and adjust to the new world is what has the biggest impact on young Amos and his scholarly father Arieh (Gilad Kahana). Amos soon figures out that the litmus test for his mother's mood is whether she is telling stories of the old days, or staring blankly into a void.

Watching someone fade away and experience death by depression/disappointment/unfulfilled dreams goes so against what we typically see on screen – the emotionally strong and heroic types. Portman's performance makes it believable, but no less difficult to watch … for us or young Amos.

The film is well shot and well acted, and much more is conveyed through faces and movement than spoken words … somewhat unusual for the recollections of a writer. The color palette and the silence dominate many scenes, and it seems appropriate given the situation of this family. Expect to see many more projects from director Portman, as she obviously has much to say.

This is the most boring movie I have seen for a while. There isn't much about the founding of the state of Israel if that's what you might expect to see. Instead it's mostly about the author's mother and her depression with only passing comment or two about the state of Arab Jewish relations. The melancholia headaches and death of the mother are the main story. What's so interesting about that? If it had shown her journey from Europe to Jerusalem then maybe you'd understand why she was like that. Instead it shows things that don't lead anywhere. The novelty of watching Natalie Portman speak Yiddish or Hebrew wears off quite quickly. She directed and wrote the screenplay.

I would give this one a miss. It's a tale about nothing much. For fans of this writer's work only.