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Bittersweet (2007)

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Synopsis

A quiet evening with friends at Ran and Dana's is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of a clairvoyant. Her prophecies regarding the number of children each member of the group will have, serve as a catalyst to disturb the fragile harmony amongst the group. Each of these middle-aged, educated and successful people reacts emotionally as their lives begin to unravel.

Ran Goldstein, the director of a successful international investment company is married to Dana and they have two children together. Keren, who is married to Leon, a successful lawyer, is a musician and plays in a string quartet with Dana. David, another friend, is a successful gynecologist who lives with his boyfriend Gal. No one knows David's true sexual identity and therefore, Ran sets him up with Daniella, Ran's secretary.

Ran is faced with an unnerving request: his 82 year old mother, Shlomit, is suffering from Alzheimer's and wishes to end her life. She has asked her son to help her. Dana must decide whether to keep the child she is carrying and tell her husband he is not the father.

Keren and Leon are at a crossroads. Leon doesn't want to have children. Keren does. David must decide between his true love, Gal, and his desire for a conventional family and children. Daniella is tired of looking for love and must decide whether David is the one.

The story is about a group of middle-aged Israelis living in Tel-Aviv who are faced with disturbing situations that ultimately lead them to make new, life-changing decisions. The emotional chaos these people find themselves in forces them to account for their actions and their choices. Will they find compromises they can live with?

Review

This film is not a gay positive movie and we apologize for running it in our catalog. While the film is well-made, the filmmaker's agenda is to tell a story of a "gay man" who renounces his homosexuality on a moment's notice. The man goes out on a blind date with a woman and the next day announces his intention to marry the unlucky woman. He leaves his partner alone crying. While this absurd fiction might happen in the world of the "ex-gay" folks and Michele Bachmann, this is not something that I personally believe is possible or right. There are so many gay positive films that have come from Israel I didn't think twice about this happening when we posted it in our catalog and I apologize for this error. We support artist's rights to tell whatever stories they want to tell, but we don't have to market them all - and this is one we don't want to market.

-- Scott Cranin

Keywords

Bisexual/Pansexual, Drama, Family Life, Friendship, Gay Male, Gay/Lesbian, Marriage, Parenting, Religion/Spirituality

Genres

Drama, International

Customer Reviews

Unraveling and Owning Up

Amos Lassen wrote on 05/29/2011:

Doron Benvenisti has directed a very interesting film about couples in Israel. Ran is director of an international investment corporation and is married to Dana. They are parents to Keren, a musician who is married to Leon, an attorney. David is a very successful gynecologist who lives with Gal, his boyfriend. No one really knows his real sexuality so Ran sets him up with his secretary, Daniella. They spend a quiet evening together until it is interrupted by a fortune teller and what she has to say disturbs the friends and each person feels their life starting to unravel. Ran’s mother who is suffering from Alzheimer’s asks her son to help her end her life; Dana is carrying a child and she must decide to keep it or not and then tell her husband that he is not the father; Keren and Leon have problems—he does not want children and she does and David has to decide whether to stay with Gal or to find a woman and build a family. Because of all of this, each person has to account for who he is what he has done and then live with the decisions they make.