Queens

Queens (Malkot) is an Israeli crime drama set in Tel Aviv. The basic premise is that all the ranking members of a crime family are assassinated, leaving the wives and girlfriends to run the business. This could be spun into a gripping, fast paced yarn. It could be taken in a number of interesting directions. Unfortunately it falls down in the execution.

During a drug fueled bachelor party on a yacht, Jacob Malka, his son and most of his men are gunned down. The only survivor, the only witness, is his nine year old grandson Ido (Benjamin Schwabe). The matriarch of the family, Dori Malka, played by the former Eurovision contestant Rita (Yahan-Farouz), has to take charge. The plot lurches from left to right with twists, big reveals, and unbelievable contrivances. With enough speed and panache, Queens could run roughshod over disbelief. It certainly has the momentum, but it can't avoid the holes. The plot isn't contiguous.

One of the problems is with the logical progression of events. The other is with the consequences of those events. The writers have a clear idea of where they are starting and where they want to get to. What they don't always have is a good way to go between the two. Characters acting stupidly or out of character, and improbable coincidence are the devices of choice. This problem permeates the whole series all the way down to the fight choreography. A character is face down then suddenly face up because that's what's needed for the next shot.

When the plot runs into problems a little deus ex machina can be thrown in. On two separate occasions difficult characters are run over. However, with the second car crash, the police would be asking some very awkward questions, like why was the victim suffering from both exposure and frostbite? Sapir (Lihi Kornowski) is blinded in one eye by an acid attack. It's not just that the wound goes from chemical burn to fully formed scar after a couple of hours or hospitalisation - the unbelievable thing is that when she is comforted by Nina Malka (Nofar Salman,) they hug of the burnt side. Someone hasn't thought things through.

While Queens doesn't really have panache, it does have Tarantino references - not to Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown or even Death Proof, but to Kill Bill, just Kill Bill. There are the borrowed shots, the music, Lizi Malka (Dana Ivgy) driving like Black Mamba and the eye patched Sapir going around California Mountain Snake style. When Tarantino references movies like Model Shop or Lady Snowblood it adds another layer of meaning to the his film. But those re-references have been done to death for the past 20 years, becoming the Muzak of pop culture used to sell car insurance and lawn furniture.

Maybe it's that the actors are portraying people who are going out of character in service of the plot or maybe it's the Tarantino-obsessed direction that causes the performances to come in below par. There is quite a bit of overacting, most notably from Rita. The director needed to calm things down in places. Another factor that could be making the acting appear iffy is the dodgy subtitling. In the version of Queens that I saw it started going out of whack quite early on. Dori complainers of a headache. Another character offers her "Ibuprofen?" which is translated to "Here's an Advil." The change from a question to an imperative means that the dialogue no longer matches up with the performances. When Guy Fransis (Roi Miller) cuts another character's rambling dialogue short with a disdainful "Avanti!" it is translated as a deferential "Yes, I understand." It's quite at odds with what is going on in the scene. Character development is also lost in translation. Dori Malka and the head of another family, Hillel Kadosh (Doron Ben-David), are talking about a couple's relationship in terms of zebras and giraffes. They are also talking about themselves. The translation cuts the metaphor short after a single line.

Queens has a good premise, decent production values and some visual humour that works quite well but in the end it is a bit of a let-down.