#MeToo Themed Israeli Film ‘Working Woman' Is Too On-The-Nose But Has the Power to Shake You [Review]

Israeli director, not to mention award-winning documentarian, Michal Aviad’s “Working Woman” is a movie that feels and, very much, wants to be relevant, but in its attempt to depict a situation which is heavily #MeToo it doesn’t manage to sidestep its biggest problem; the obviousness of it all.

The film has Orna (Liron Ben Shlush) having to deal with her boss Benny (Menashe Noy). who is clingingly too intimate whenever he approaches her at the office. Alarm bells are set, especially when Benny asks her to wear her hair down and buy more sophisticated clothes. Orna’s discomfort and imprisoning feeling is only enhanced by the fact that she has three kids to take a care of and a husband, Ofer (Oshri Cohen), who has opened an unsuccessful restaurant in Tel Aviv. She’s can’t quit. Benny writes her paychecks and, despite her constant pushbacks towards him, he relentlessly continues the sexual-charged advances.

Aviad wrote the screenplay with the assistance of Michal Vinik, and Sharon Azulay Eyal, and it does, at times, feel like a film steeped in psychological terror. But if its intent is to probe us with tough questions, they end up being all too-easily answered by the film’s screenwriting trio. There’s a path being set here by Aviad and we know the inevitability of Orna’s journey, its conclusion already foreseen by us, never straying far from from our narrative expectations. Regardless, there is a deep understanding to this Orna’s dillema, the details are froth with carefully placed nuances, quite possibly because the director is female, Aviad knows this territory, she’s probably, like many women, even had experiences of her own dealing with the toxic masculinity, and so, unsurprisingly, every moment in “Working Woman” indicates deep compassion and feeling for Orna on the part of the director. [B-]