Film Review: GOLDA (2023): Helen Mirren is Solid in a Meandering Drama Full of Good Intentions

Golda Review

Golda (2023) Film Review, a movie directed by Guy Nattiv, written by Nicholas Martin and starring Helen Mirren, Liev Schreiber, Camille Cottin, Rotem Keinan, Dominic Mafham, Dvir Benedek, Rami Heuberger, Ellie Piercy, Jonathan Tafler, Ed Stoppard, Lior Ashkenazi, Emma Davies, Mark Fleischmann, Henry Goodman, Daniel Ben Zenou, Olivia Brody, Claudette Williams and Jamie Ray Newman.

Director Guy Nattiv’s Golda showcases Helen Mirren in a performance that follows all the rules on how to secure an Oscar nomination in a biopic. Heavy makeup? Check. A moving speech delivered by the film’s star towards the end of the film? Check. An important and relevant historical topic? Check. Helen Mirren is so good, at times, in the film but the makeup proves to be a major distraction to allowing the audience to focus on her performance. In The Eyes of Tammy Faye, the audience didn’t feel that Jessica Chastain’s work was overshadowed by the makeup. The makeup complemented the performance. The makeup is competing with Mirren for the audience’s attention in Golda and it detracts from the quality of the film as a whole.

This movie feels, at times, like it is Martin Scorsese’s Golda. Don’t get too excited, though, because it’s not. That’s not because it’s as good as a Scorsese film but employs techniques reminiscent of the famous director. At the start of the movie, it shows us a lot of different characters and flashes their titles and relevance in writing on the screen. It’s almost like Goodfellas by way of the Yom Kippur War. Golda Meir (Mirren), former Prime Minister of Israel, feels like she’s one of the “boys” in this film. Complete with shoes that became popular in their own right, Golda associates with a crew that includes Defense Minister Moshe Dayan (Rami Heuberger) and military chief David Elazar (Lior Ashkenazi) but Golda is the one who walks into the room and changes the dynamics of everything.

Golda smokes in the movie. Like a chimney. Let’s not forget she is undergoing treatment for cancer during the course of the picture. Golda was the type who smoked right up until the last minute of her life. Mirren would perfectly convey the essence of the character if that makeup just didn’t seem to want our attention.

Liev Schreiber co-stars in the movie as U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. There is a scene where Golda feeds him and brings him some cultural type of food that she seems to be making Kissinger eat– something that he really doesn’t seem to want. We get why he eats it but as Golda watches him to see if he likes it, it makes for an odd moment in a movie that should be concerned with the actual “meat and potatoes” of the 19 days of the Yom Kippur war of 1973. I guess Kissinger’s eating was part of how they delved in to discussing politics.

Camille Cottin co-stars as Golda Meir’s aide, Lou Kaddar, in the movie and does a decent job which excellently demonstrates the loyalty Lou had to Golda. The scenes between them include one on a rooftop and are compelling but in a movie which wants to be a prestige picture, these moments sort of feel more like time filler.

The movie shows images of the real Golda Meir towards the end and that decision felt like a mistake. There’s too much riding on the audience forgetting Mirren is under the makeup and when we see the real footage, it reminds us it’s Mirren under there, for whatever reason. When the makeup doesn’t work, it takes away from Mirren’s performance. One could only wish that the whole production could have re-evaluated in terms of the way they brought Mirren’s Golda to life on-screen. Showing the real Golda, though, doesn’t succeed in helping the film much.

That being said, there are some things to admire here. Schreiber’s performance is always on-point. When Kissinger isn’t being fed by Golda, Schreiber and Mirren have some interesting interactions that make us see the complexity of the politics behind the war. Negotiations are discussed throughout the film and when what is being talked about is quite interesting, we feel for the situation the real-life characters in the movie are going through. Lives are being lost and history is being made and the movie brings those details to life vividly.

But, in the end, the makeup makes this movie unlikely to emerge with any Academy Award nominations. Mirren’s work and the makeup itself may be under consideration for nods and Mirren is certainly forceful in the performance of her role. It’s just that the direction of the film is hit-and-miss. Those scenes with Schreiber are good but other cast members get lost in the shuffle due to too many interactions that come and go. A longer movie may have dealt more efficiently with such a large cast.

Golda is a noble effort for the historical information it presents to its audience. It’s always hard to say that a movie could have done something different to be better but in reviewing the movie that this actually is, it could have been so much more.

Rating: 6/10

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