Nice effects though.

best movie i've ever seen.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The hallmark of a true star is the ability to shine no matter what the setting. From her work as a young actress in Star Wars and The Professional, to the more mature work in Black Swan (wow) and Mr. Magorium, Portman has never allowed herself to get lost in a movie, and this one is no exception. Other reviewers have questioned the screenplay, the direction, the value of the allegory, and even the use of dialects. Don't care. I stumbled on this film by accident on Pay-Cable, and allowed Portman to take me a scenic tour of the Middle East. She was a great guide, using her own charisma to compensate for any failings in the film -- and, to be frank, there were few such failings over all. The writers had a simple story to tell and they told it. I also liked the sound track, a very effective use of music to counterpoint key scenes. Without Portman, a good film. With her, it is something better.

When I saw the beginning of the film begins with more than 10 minutes of Natalie crying in a passenger seat, while nothing is happening, I knew this film will be a very boring film, but I kept watching it, and I made a mistake! The film is a 15 minutes film dragged into 90 minute film, when most of the time nothing is happening, it is not that the film is slow, just things don't move, beside the car they are driving. The director did a very good job of annoying me, he just made a joke of the middle east conflict with a shallow, meaning less story. I am a big fan of art movies, and I am not a Hollywood movie fan, but this Free Zone is not an art movie, and even it is not a Hollywood movie. What I don't understand is how can this film win any awards and even be nominated, especially in Cannes Film Festival. Was the actors so bad in that year that Hana Laszlo won the best Best Actress in Cannes Film Festival? For half of the film she was driving with no expressions or dialog, and even when she spoke she was not convincing. All the actors beside Makram Khoury and Natalie Portman (she was not brilliant) were really bad! But I would say the worst of them all is the director, I did not see any other film he did, but if all his films are like this one, then he should start doing something else!Sorry if my English is not perfect!

as with some others such as Bordertown,Kite Runner,etc and this one, all arrogant ignorant xenophobic gringos should see it from any type of understanding of other peoples and culturesread 'The Haj' read EXODUS read The Koranbut most USA 'sheeples' have not a clue of this area of the world and the way it was portrayed in this picture looks how mine may be made basic, real time The Oyster Diver again most have no idea how food gets to your table or in this case, how peoples have been uprooted from their ancestral homesViva El Frente/Verde goggleirs......wejustdoit

This is more of a response to the latest post by "Mrnaturalsez". I guess we are expected to take your word on a movie instead of the Cannes Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival, which incidentally gave this move high praise. The film was an interesting, raw look at Jerusalem and Jordan as one would see it as a traveller. Plot has nothing to do with appreciating this movie, so I think you missed the mark. The story was used as a reason to explore the middle eastern culture. It was also interesting seeing Natalie Portman speak in her native Hebrew language. The film drew upon Portman's real life, as she was born in Isreal and had a Jewish father and American mother. Some films are watched for action, others for art, but I guess one will believe what one wants. There's my 2 cents.