Golda's Balcony

Jeremy Kagan's excellent adaptation of William Gibson's stage play.

Harper and Golda's Balcony generate tremendous influence and timeless meaning.

Fortunately, no amount of optical wizardry and quick-change trickery can disguise the fundamental power of Harper's performance, a revelatory turn that's truly transformative in every sense of the term.

Once again, we chart the growth of a woman and a country at the same time, a tough assignment that Harper tackles with humor and passion (even if her Kissinger impersonation could use a little work).

Kagan's green-screen filmization, in its over-busy editing, ever-changing angles and constantly shifting backdrops, strips the play of its starkness, leaving disproportionate schmaltz and propaganda.

Harper and the film's director, Jeremy Kagan, try valiantly, but they are unable to bring Meir to life or hold viewers' attentions.

Reconfigured into a very different one-woman movie by Gibson and director Jeremy Kagan. Unfortunately, the transformation was not successful.