Schnabel doesn't comes close to the quiet power of his last feature, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, delivering a story that can't match the scope or scale of Rula Jebreal’s source material.
The trouble here is that Schnabel tries to educate as well as entertain, but does neither as he delivers a potted history couched in a confusing and meandering narrative.
Well-intentioned but clunky history drama.
I kept wondering how this pie-eyed tract, which spends two hours proclaiming the obvious about peace, entente and togetherness, could be made any more windily trite. I couldn’t think of anything.
Though there’s a bold, stirring performance from Abbass, the rest of the picture trudges along.
The focus is fatally divided from the outset and Freida Pinto looks uneasy and miscast as Miral herself.
Schnabel wants an effort badge for partisan compassion, but effort is just what's lacking.
The film itself is a superficial history lesson with more style than substance.
Unfocused and, as a result, not especially engaging.
This is clumsy consciousness-raising melodrama, unworthy of its complex subject.
Hiam Abbass interview for Miral
Interview: Freida Pinto, actress
Julian Schnabel interview for Miral
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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