Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
72 Adela
39 Adventures of Power
78 Afghan Star
61 After the Storm
66 Afterschool
xx All the Best
58 American Casino
72 Amreeka
48 Antichrist
73 Araya
62 Art & Copy
55 As Seen Through These Eyes
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
13 Beautiful Life, A
70 Beeswax
35 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71 Big Fan
66 Black Dynamite
51 Blind Date
xx Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76 Bliss
35 Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57 Boys Are Back, The
45 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
70 Bronson
45 Burning Plain, The
xx Carriers
55 Casi Divas
57 Chelsea on the Rocks
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
59 Collapse
44 Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
67 Departures
xx Dil Bole Hadippa
71 Disgrace
xx Do Knot Disturb
70 Earth Days
24 Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
xx Eulogy for a Vampire
xx Everyone Else
xx Fatal Promises
56 Fifty Dead Men Walking
62 Five Minutes of Heaven
74 Flame & Citron
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
28 Free Style
xx From Mexico with Love
50 Fuel
25 Gentlemen Broncos
50 Give Me Your Hand
58 Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
52 Grace
64 Harmony and Me
81 Headless Woman, The
xx Heretics, The
63 Horse Boy, The
73 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
74 Humpday
94 Hurt Locker, The
29 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16 If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75 In Search of Beethoven
83 In the Loop
61 Intimate Enemies
42 Irene in Time
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
19 Labor Day
xx Laila's Birthday
41 Little Ashes
41 Little Traitor, The
66 Liverpool
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
83 Maid, The
xx Ministers, The
59 More Than a Game
67 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
xx Mystery Team
48 New York, I Love You
73 Night and Day
66 No Impact Man
47 Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34 Other Man, The
xx Painter Sam Francis, The
54 Paper Heart
xx Paradise
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
44 Peter and Vandy
35 Play the Game
77 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx Pretty Ugly People
65 Providence Effect, The
76 Rembrandt's J'accuse
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
40 Shrink
61 Skin
77 Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx Skiptracers
46 Splinterheads
39 St. Trinian's
89 Still Walking
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
55 Storm
65 Tetro
70 That Evening Sun
72 Thirst
xx Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61 Trucker
xx Turning Green
83 U2 3D
66 Unmade Beds
66 Unmistaken Child
70 Visual Acoustics
55 Walt & El Grupo
67 Way We Get By, The
69 We Live in Public
64 Wedding Song, The
64 Where is Where?
xx White on Rice
74 Woman in Berlin, A
69 World's Greatest Dad
70 Yes Men Fix the World
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx You, the Living

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Walk On Water

EMAILPRINTSamuel Goldwyn Films

Walk On Water reviews
65
8.9 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 25 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Foreign  |  Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Gal Uchovsky

Directed by: Eytan Fox

Release Date:
Theatrical: March 4, 2005
DVD: August 30, 2005

Running Time: 104 minutes, Color

Origin: Israel

Summary

RATING: Not Rated

Starring Lior Ashkenazi, Knut Berger, Caroline Peters, Gideon Shemer, Hanns Zischler, and Carola Regnier

A colorful and very contemporary road movie that takes its characters around Israel and later to Berlin. This unique movie, is a non traditional attempt to understand the role that is still played by the past in the lives of Israeli and German young people. (IDP Films)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

83

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

At times too movieish, yet Ashkenazi creates a memorable figure: a spy who operates - admirably - out of the most unyielding nationalist conviction, only to learn that he needs to let some of that conviction go.

Read Full Review >
80

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Fox keeps the suspense story at a low boil throughout, allowing the politics to emerge as the characters deepen.

Read Full Review >
80

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Its suggestion that Israel, of all nations, should know better than to persecute minorities within and across its borders, give the film a thrilling universal appeal.

Read Full Review >
80

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It denotes a minor movie miracle: how with intelligence, imagination and craft a small film can work in really large ways.

Read Full Review >
80

Empire Sam Toy

The uniformly excellent performances feel real and familiar.

Read Full Review >
75

Boston Globe Ty Burr

There’s something happening here and it isn’t exactly clear. What is clear is that Eytan Fox may yet make a great film for the 21st century.

Read Full Review >
75

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Remains gripping until the final 15 minutes, when a series of sudden, unjustified plot twists leave us shaking our heads.

Read Full Review >
75

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Compassionate and marvelously acted, although a subplot about the gay grandson slows the story down for a while.

Read Full Review >
75

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Hits a bulls-eye.

Read Full Review >
70

The New York Times Lawrence Van Gelder

Though it is marred by an implausible climax and a cloying conclusion, this movie's quiet intelligence sneaks up on you, marking the director as a talent to watch.

Read Full Review >
70

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The new Israeli film Walk on Water is complex and paradoxical, at times frustrating but always involving. Something like the country that produced it.

Read Full Review >
70

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

All political thrillers, good or less good, have moral implications...Walk on Water, one of the better ones, has grave moral implications and does not ignore them or merely utilize them.

Read Full Review >
70

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Fox's film seems to say that the kind of saintly purity that would enable one to walk on water -- or to kill with impunity and without repercussions -- doesn't exist.

Read Full Review >
70

Dallas Observer Jean Oppenheimer

Explores a wealth of issues and conflicting ideologies.

Read Full Review >
67

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Though its characters aren't terribly complex, and its plot holds few surprises, the screenplay (in English, German, and Hebrew) amounts to a worthy treatise on the need to forgo revenge.

Read Full Review >
63

Miami Herald Marta Barber

An unexpected ode to peace.

Read Full Review >
63

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Unfortunately for Fox, the softer his movie gets, the more Ashkenazi and Berger grow to resemble Ben Stiller and Ashton Kutcher in some unreleased, homo-erotic comic romance.

Read Full Review >
63

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

The Israeli film works best in isolated spots early on as a series of intriguing character studies. Upon reaching to become a lesson to the world, however, Walk on Water goes off the deep end.

Read Full Review >
63

Chicago Tribune Ellen Fox

Despite the film's pat plot turns and instructional tone, there are moments of charm, thanks to the fetching, committed cast.

Read Full Review >
63

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

The film nearly drowns in earnest morality.

Read Full Review >
60

TV Guide Ken Fox

Fox falters a bit with the narrative, but offers a fascinating treatment of the issues facing the descendents of Jewish victims and their German persecutors, as well as one of the most chilling birthday parties ever filmed.

Read Full Review >
60

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

Well-meaning but implausible story.

Read Full Review >
60

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

When it unexpectedly shifts back into its initial thriller mode, Walk On Water loses in human drama what it gains in tidiness, revealing itself as a film that carries more weight in its light scenes than its heavy moments can sustain.

Read Full Review >
58

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

Despite its flaws, Walk on Water is a sometimes engaging story of emotional opposites who become mystifyingly attracted to each other.

Read Full Review >
50

Variety Leslie Felperin

Attempts the miraculous but achieves the adequate.

Read Full Review >
50

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Fox can't decide if Walk on Water is a terrorist thriller or a gay buddy story, and neither can the viewer.

Read Full Review >
50

Village Voice Leslie Camhi

The complex questions Walk on Water raises receive only confused answers.

Read Full Review >
40

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Walk on Water makes you wonder what the Mossad is teaching its field agents these days.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 25 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jaideep P. gave it a10:
Excellent movie, really well done. Tackles an interesting issue from multiple angles. The relevance of the Nazi era to modern Israelis, nationalism, fear of the enemy, German self-image regarding WW II...Balanced, realistic.

pat b. gave it a9:
This movie wasn't supposed to answer questions--it was supposed to raise them. It had a wide scope, difficult to address, perhaps, in one film, but it certainly should make people think and feel, the result of any good film.

Maite A. gave it a9:
Clever, entertaining, moving and funny film with a very human message. Great from the beggining and getting even better as the story goes on.

Jeff L gave it a9:
Always entertaining. Very moving. A great story with a great message.

Chad S. gave it an8:
"In the Cut" was a suspense/thriller subverted by the chick flick. Like the underappreciated Jane Campion-directed film from 2003, Etyan Fox's "Walk on Water" makes digressions, in this case, into the gay subculture, that seem to exist outside the genre requirement of the thriller that the story be plot-oriented. To me, "Walk on Water" most resembles the form of "In the Cut" when the Jewish assasin and the gay German hang out by the sea. It's like somebody switched reels. Because "Walk on Water" is playing in art theaters, there won't be the befuddlement of cineplex patrons who kept waiting for the two chicks (Meg Ryan and Jennifer Jason-Leigh) to shut-the-hell-up, and live up to the billing of "thriller". "Walk on Water" shows you things you don't normally see; most notably, Jews recast as the bad guys, and a "queer" killer whose violent act isn't intended to incite a straight audience to villify them. The film's climax is like a Paragraph 175 revenge fantasy.

Hels W. gave it a7:
The film compared the experiences of Germans in Israel and Israelis in Germany: both settings required explanations and soul searching. While they were filming, there were 3 massacres of Jewish school children by terrorists. I am glad they showed the news footage only on tv in the background; otherwise the film may have become an intense tragedy rather than a drama.

ed s. gave it a10:
One of the very best films of 2005: ambitious, captivating, satisfying, superior craftsmanship. a great film sharply focused on current hot button social, personal and political issues.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use