“The Farewell Party,” an Israeli comedy about euthanasia, steers a careful course between humor and pathos while playing down overtly political and religious arguments for and against assisted suicide. The first feature of its creative team, Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon, “The Farewell Party,” which won them an Ophir Award (the Israeli Oscar) for best direction, is set in a Jerusalem retirement home in which one resident, an amateur inventor, devises a “mercy-killing machine.” News of the device leaks to the home’s other residents. That inventor, Yehezkel, a robust bear of a man (Ze’ev Revah) and his wife, Levana (Levana Finkelshtein), a couple in their 70s, are distressed by the acute suffering of their friend Max (Shmuel Wolf), who is dying of cancer and against his will is kept alive by doctors. Max’s wife, Yana (Aliza Rozen), entreats Yehezkel to assist Max, however he can, in ending his agony.
Enter Dr. Daniel (Ilan Dar), a retired veterinarian and a resident of the retirement home who has put down many animals. He agrees to help Yehezkel perfect the design of a machine that will allow Max to end his own life by pushing a button. Raffi (Rafael Tabor), a retired police officer, advises that a pretaped video from Max stating that he alone is responsible for his suicide will help avoid trouble with the law. But will it? The movie stops short of exploring the legalities.
Among the members of the group, Levana, who has early-stage Alzheimer’s, is the only one who is morally opposed to euthanasia. But her attitude softens when she realizes to her horror that she is “disappearing.” Mr. Revah and Ms. Finkelshtein, who give the strongest performances, are touching as a deeply devoted couple.
For all its sensitivity to the subject, “The Farewell Party” makes a number of tonal missteps of which the most glaring is the insertion of a musical number that upsets the movie’s otherwise sensible balance between the comedic and the morbid.
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