Given my fascination with the modern tragedy of the Palestinian's predicament, I thus was very willing to like Divine Intervention. But ultimately, this was a case of lofty ideals blinding the basic craft of good cinema.
The real life issues (Israeli Occupation of Palestinian lands/ Oppression of the Palestinian people) genuinely demands our attention and worthy concerns. And from what I have read, believed they were better explored in other non-fiction documentaries like "A Wedding in Ramallah" or "Gaza strip".
Which was a real pity. As Divine Intervention, being a fictional feature, could have achieved a dramatic potential and political resonance far wider than above-mentioned works. Instead, what I have seen was a painfully average work of an aspiring auteur, who harboured artistic ambition beyond his reach.
Yes, the themes explored may be noble and the real life issues behind the film may even be deemed absurd, ironic and ultimately tragic. But first and foremost, Divine Intervention needed to be judged as a film. However "holy" the subject matter, our sympathies for the real life issues need not compensate for what can seen so clearly as poor execution and misdirection. As such, as a film, it didn't work for me.
Granted, there may be brilliant parts of surreal beauty (the Santa Claus and Ninja sequence comes to mind). But ultimately these vignettes of uneven quality are marred by the glaring failure of its disjointed, disengaging whole. It's sophomoric metaphors and monotonous, pseudo artistic rythms, left me cold and empty.
Amazing really, how a film can show so much promise yet fails so miserably. That said, I'll still give it a passing 6/10 for some truly inspired moments. But that's about it.
