Miral Directed by: Julian Schnabel Starring: Freida Pinto, Willem Dafoe, Hiam Abbass Rating: R Release Date: March 25, 2011

TRAILER SCORE: 4/10

MY THOUGHTS: Miral already had a lot to prove to me before the trailer even started. Creating a story about a young Palestinian woman and casting an Indian actress, to me, shows an alarming lack of sensitivity to the characters, but unfortunately, this isn't the worst offense this trailer commits. The material is interesting on its own. Maybe not to some, but to me, any examination of the state of things in the Middle east deserves some recognition for exposing people to a world outside of their own. The only issue with Miral's method of doing this is the way it presents itself. From the very moment that somber string music began to play, I groaned aloud, knowing I was preparing myself for another one of those self-congratulatory Oscar bait-type movies. Luckily, the trailer picks up. There are a few moments where I was a little worried they were going to package this as a "forbidden love" type story and say to hell with the politics, but based on the trailer, I'm not ready to give up on it yet. It still could have some worthwhile material buried deep in there, but it doesn't look like much. Props for the most incredibly bizarre use of Tom Waits, but not even that is enough to save this messy, convoluted trailer.