Tel Aviv. Police officer Azoulay never notices any criminal activity around him, and thus his superior, police chief Lefkowitch, intends to not renew his contract. Azoulay is unhappily married with the overweight, cigarette addicted Betty, and they have no kids. He mistakes an innocent man in a cinema for an Arab suicide bomber. He also unwillingly arrests prostitute Mimi in a raid, but they remain friends on the street. Upon hearing that Azoulay will be replaced, criminals stage a fake robbery to have him arrest one of them, so that he could stay in the police precinct. Azoulay is thus promoted to a Sergeant, but immediately sent to retirement by Lefkowitch, to not mess anything up.
Even though it is regarded as a classic in Israel, this gentle police comedy made in the vein of Czech humor does not feel as fresh anymore, since the director Ephraim Kishon was not as inspired as Ephraim Kishon the novelist, leaving the film feeling thin, overstretched and with several ‘empty walks’ here and there. It is simply not that funny, featuring several cheesy or forced gags trying too hard to be sympathetic. “The Policeman” works the most thanks to the main actor Shaike Ophir as Azoulay, a more grounded, tragic version of Inspector Clouseau, and, especially, wonderful supporting actress Nitza Saul as the good-hearted prostitute Mimi, who awakens Azoulay’s dormant emotions, and one almost wishes the movie should have explored their relationship more and made her the lead, instead of just letting her “disappear” in the entire second half.
The best jokes arrive swiftly and unexpectedly: in the police station, police chief Lefkowitch is annoyed when he sees the wall plastered with mugshots of criminals, and spots that some prankster placed a newspaper photo of Yasser Arafat among them. Azoulay is watching a black-and-white crime film on TV and imagines himself starring in it, beating up criminals in a warehouse to save his beloved Mimi. Finally, when the news hits that the absent-minded police officer Azoulay will be fired because he never notices any crime acts around him, the criminals panic, knowing he was their “unwilling accomplice” for years and fearing that now a new, tougher cop will disrupt their business, so they concoct a hilarious plan of stealing artifacts from a monastery, all to get deliberately caught by Azoulay. When Azoulay arrests and handcuffs the volunteer criminal, the later pulls out Azoulay’s pistol behind his back, just to prove how silly this whole thing is, yet then holsters it back again. Even while being taken away to prison in a police van, the criminal just suddenly bursts into laughter while watching the oblivious Azoulay who “caught” him. Truly, the only sequence that rises to the occasion and reaches Kishon’s best days. The final image takes a more somber route by sending a bitter message: you never get what you really wanted in life, and then it’s all over.
Grade:++
No comments:
Post a Comment