Broken Wings

Tragically, Broken Wings bears no relation to the Mr. Mister mullet-spawning MOR power ballad of the mid 1980s. Instead what we get here is a well meaning but plodding melodrama set in Israel, which charts the disintegration of a family. When the head of the Ullmans is killed in a freak accident, the rest of the close-knit clan fall to pieces. The man's widow, Dafna (Orli Silbersatz Banai) is only in her early 40s and alongside dealing with her own grief, she must attempt to be strong for her children. The kids aren't coping well and the eldest child, 17-year-old Maya (Maron) is expected assume responsibility when it comes to her younger siblings, Ido (Daniel Magon) and Bahr (Eliana Magon).

File under honourable but dull, Broken Wings is a weighty, earnest drama, but one that lacks any real resonance, due to the director's insistence on treading the same ground that others have already covered to greater, more emotionally resonant effect. In the last 18 months, there have been two far better films made on the subject, The Son's Room and In the Bedroom. Both of those films patiently charted the arc of grief, slowly building the characters and allowing them the space to which express themselves. In Broken Wings, there's too much adherence to cliche, making the actors look like they just dropped in from a soap opera. Which, quite frankly, is never a good sign.