Getting older is supposed to come with certain issues, but there’s a notion that a peaceful retirement might be the goal. For some, it just doesn’t work that way, and continuing to hold down a monotonous job for many years while dealing with troublesome family dynamics may be their fate. The Israeli film Bliss spotlights a couple with a big age difference both dealing with unexpected relics of their pasts confronting them later in life…
Sassi (Sasson Gabay) is married to Effi (Asi Levi), and while there are more than twenty years between them, they enjoy a happy life. Sassi is exploring surgery to help with their sex life but Effi doesn’t seem concerned, and he’s suddenly forced to confront other issues when his grandson Omri (Maor Levi) shows up unannounced to tell them he is visiting from Europe. Omri’s father has a crippling gambling problem that has cost Sassi much over the years, and he struggles to be the right role model for his grandson while helping both of his children, including his local daughter who resents how Sassi always focuses more on the son who doesn’t live close. Effi encounters her own specters when her latest physical therapy patient turns out to be someone she knows all too well and wishes to forget.
Bliss comes from writer-director Shemi Zarhin, who was previously at TIFF with The Kind Words and is also known for Aviva, My Love and Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi. He’s enlisted top-tier talent for his latest film, starting with Gabay and Levi, who starred together in Aviva, My Love. Gabay is also well-known for playing the lead role in the Oscar-disqualified The Band’s Visit (there was too much English spoken) before its path to Broadway. Both are typically superb and enjoy a warm dynamic that still leaves plenty to ponder about the longevity of a relationship that involves many complications and uncontrollable friends and family members.
This film compellingly portrays a couple that does have healthy communication and who devote time to each other as they deal with the other unpredictable aspects of their lives. It’s interesting to watch as Sassi stands at the back of the room when a religious lecturer presents at the library and offers unwelcome but deeply insightful observations about the biblical material he’s covering or goes to see his younger grandson to help him after he swallows a coin thinking it will help build up his iron. Effi also knows how to help people through her work, and she’s just as capable of making her frustration known as she is of being kind. These roles feel lived in in the best way, and this film adds just the right infusion of humor to make its depiction of life’s less messier moments endearing. B+
Bliss makes its international premiere in the Centrepiece section at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.