Restless

Award-winning Israeli filmmaker Amos Kollek returns to the territory of his renowned trilogy (Sue, Fiona and Bridget) with Restless, a provocative film about a man's struggle to survive as he searches for redemption in New York City.

Years ago, Moshe became fed up with his life and tired of his pregnant wife, his job, his country and its inhabitants. Doubting his paternal instincts, he left his family and his Israeli hometown for bigger and better opportunities in New York City, and never once looked back. Alas, twenty-one years in the big city have not been as fruitful as Moshe had anticipated, and he now peddles junk on the streets, incapable of even paying the rent for his unkempt basement apartment. Moshe's only satisfaction is his poetry and a female bartender named Yolanda (and her young son), who works in the shabby bar where he frequently does ersatz poetry readings. One day, however, he is shaken by the news that his estranged, motherless, ex-soldier son, Tzach, wants to meet him in the city. This distressing news causes Moshe to confront the fact that he may have made a terrible, perhaps unredeemable mistake. By a twist of fate, he and his newly reunited son soon find themselves on a collision course.

But Moshe's shame and dysfunctional paternal relationship is only the background to this film's immensely powerful drama. At its core, Restless is about a father-son relationship between two generations of Israelis and the changing social values in both Israel and the Western world. The performances, delivered in both English and Hebrew, are consistently unsettling, releasing feelings of alienation and an abundance of raw emotion as father and son look for a bond, a home and a way to connect with one another.

On the surface, Restless is a movie looking for its niche audience -- Jewish cineastes conflicted about the role of Israel in the world.

But on the strength of one performance, it becomes an unforgettable character sketch and a story accessible to anybody confused about the notion of "home."

That performance belongs to Moshe Ivgy as "Moshe," a punch-drunk New Yorker, street poet and vendor of cheesy souvenir tchotchkes, a man whose vitality makes him catnip to women despite his age, and whose baggage is anger born of unfulfilled dreams.

We see both Moshes in introductory scenes as he is beaten up over a bad debt, blithely receives news about the death of his ex-wife in Israel, and has sex (and then homemade soup) with a woman who means nothing to him. Flash ahead to an Israeli immigre bar, where much of the entertainment and the chatter is in Hebrew. There Moshe is quickly wearing out his welcome getting drunk on credit and is on the verge of getting physically ejected by the shiksa barmaid Yolanda (Karen Young), a sad and angry ex-Gulf War soldier and single mom working out of desperation in a place where she doesn't even speak the working language.

Moshe's eviction is staved off, however, when he drunkenly takes a dare, and goes onstage to deliver an impromptu monologue, full of off-the-cuff metaphors, about the lost promise of Israel. The rant both delights and angers the crowd, and a star is born -- in the grittiest New York sense of the word. Soon the place is filling up for readings by the "mad Hebrew poet."

Cut away to Jerusalem, where Moshe's equally angry son Tzach (Ran Danker) has made a name for himself as the best sniper in the Israeli army, and imagines his hated father in the crosshairs of every shot he takes.

Danker, apparently an Israeli movie heartthrob, doesn't match Igvy's acting chops, but Tzach's story does provide effective counterbalance to Moshe's. Almost inevitably, his irrational dedication to his job produces a tragedy, and Tzach is removed from his posting and as rootless as his father. Their stories now parallel, he sullenly heads off to meet him.

Tzach has his own adventures, including a potentially dangerous drunken night with a bunch of outwardly-friendly Palestinians -- a scenario director Amos Kollek hones to a sinister edge. But it's Moshe who stirs the emotional drink -- having a tender affair with a vivacious, aged widow (Phyllis Somerville) and attempting redemption by starting anew as a father with Yolanda and her son.

Moshe's coarse poetry reflects the events in his life -- initially a betrayer of a country that he screams betrayed its promise (and seemingly betrayed in turn by the promise of the American Dream), his discourse eventually becomes bittersweet and tinged with both regret and a kind of love for the piece of desert he once called home.

Restless is a feast of flavours and emotions, that is at once open-ended and redemptive. Like its central character, it repeatedly courts disaster, but never loses hope.

This movie about the bitterness of self-imposed exile begins with a brutal beating as its protagonist, Moshe (Moshe Ivgy), is punished by some New York heavies for a bad business deal. He returns to his modest apartment only to learn that his ex-wife — whom he hasn’t seen in over 20 years — has died back in Israel, leaving behind Tzach (Ran Danker), the son he abandoned. Tzach, a sniper in the Israeli army, unravels in the wake of his mother’s death. His dream for a military career ends in tragedy and he heads to New York to confront his deadbeat dad.

Meanwhile, the down-on-his-luck Moshe begins reading his poems at a jazz bar that caters to New York’s Israeli population and becomes an improbable local celebrity. Part Bukowski, part Lenny Bruce, his straight-shooting doggerel helps him rebuild his confidence and his life. After a rather forced subplot borrowed from Harold and Maude (with Harold recast as a horny middle-aged man), Moshe woos bartender and single-mom Yolanda (the excellent Karen Young, recognizable from turns in The Sopranos and the Law and Order franchise). His speedy evolution from self-absorbed asshole to reformed family man strains believability, but Ivgy and Young deliver authentic chemistry that saves the story. It’s heavy-handed in its portrayal of a divided Israel eating away at is own ideals — especially so when father and son climactically face off — but as a tale of redemption, Restless mostly works.

Moshe left his wife and son in Israel 20 years ago and came to America seeking love and success. Hounded by crooks for money, he tries his best to live without dwelling on the past. But one day he hears from his son. Tzach's mother has died of alcoholism and the authorities suspect him of being involved in a suicide bombing, so he decides to leave Israel. Reunited in New York, father and son finally get to know each other.