Walk on Water

Following the small scale Yossi and Jagger, revolving around a homosexual tryst between two soldiers at a border outpost, Israeli director Eytan Fox works on a much broader canvas here, but to less effect. Ranging geographically from the Middle East to Germany, and addressing a wide variety of topics--Arab-Israeli relations, the morality of antiterrorist violence, war guilt, and sexual preference--Walk on Water never achieves focus, and features a young cast who are physically attractive but emotionally flat. The plot revolves around a member of the Mossad (the Israeli CIA) assigned to masquerade as a tour guide for a German man visiting his collective-farm-living (kibbutz) sister: the siblings are the grandchildren of an escaped Nazi war criminal, and the Mossad hopes the pair might reveal their grandfather's whereabouts. What follows is a mixture of travelogue, romance, and morality tale as the men visit various sites in Israel: the German visitor reveals that he's gay, the Mossad agent exhibits a virulent bias against Palestinians while being drawn toward his client's sister, and both men must decide what to do when the unrepentant grandfather shows up alive. Fox obviously has a great deal going on here, but he never juggles the elements satisfactorily, and Walk on Water ultimately sinks under the weight of its unwieldy script and uncommunicative performances. Not recommended. (F. Swietek)