Review: 'Zero Motivation' shows absurd nature of service

• 3.5 stars %28out of 5%29
• Talya Lavie wrote and directed%2C with a knowing eye toward military madness.
• Dana Ivgy and Nelly Tagar are good%2C which is essential%2C because their characters would be otherwise grating.
• The humor is more successful than the drama%2C which is never a comfortable fit.

"Zero Motivation" is such a great, loaded name for a movie.

It could be about anything, really, but what Talya Lavie's movie is about is what makes it so intriguing: female soldiers in the Israeli army, bored out of their skulls on a remote base, creating drama where there isn't any and stumbling over it when there is.

Dysfunctional military films are a staple, with such classics as "Catch-22" and "M*A*S*H" springing to mind (both are clear inspirations here). But it's nice to see the story told from a different perspective — in this case, perspectives. Lavie, who directs and wrote the film, actually has more in mind than a comedy of errors. But the dramatic bits don't quite gel, and the film never quite takes off the way she apparently would like it to. Yet it's the kind of movie that offers small rewards along the way.

At its heart, the film is a story of a friendship. Zohar (Dana Ivgy) and Daffi (Nelly Tagar) are serving their obligatory military commitment at a hole-in-the-wall base. The effort they put forth in their clerical tasks is one of the inspirations for the title, but that lowballs it. They literally do almost nothing.

Well, that's not exactly true. Zohar plays Minesweeper on one of the office computers (the film looks to be set in the early 2000s), and Daffi sneaks away for naps when not writing letters to headquarters requesting a transfer to Tel Aviv. She offers dubious medical reasons; the real impetus is the lack of social life and the effect of the dry air on her hair.

Some people are unfit for military service, and these are two of them.

Their office is a mess (Daffi, whose job is to shred papers, doesn't see the need to perform the task every day), much to the chagrin of their boss, Rama (Shani Klein). But compared with Zohar, Daffi works like a dog.

We don't really know much about Zohar and Daffi, except that they really, really don't like being in the army. They're smart enough to see the absurdity of the rote tasks they are assigned, but lazy and whiny enough to prevent them from seeing the greater goals of the group.

They're annoying, in other words, so credit Ivgy and Tagar for bringing some charm, however limited, to both characters. There is, however, a shelf life for such charm, and Zohar, in particular, wears it out before long.

Lavie dips into drama from time to time, addressing the dangerous sexual dysfunction on the base (Zohar is a virgin, a status she's desperate to change) and the toll that monotony, coupled with youthful desire, can take.

These are worthy pursuits, but they don't really fit in with the overall madness of the movie. The solution to one problem is to take the exact opposite approach of what one would suspect (and Lavie does a nice job of completing an ironic circle). It's the kind of nonsensical thing that makes such movies enjoyable. There's method in the madness, but little of it elsewhere in "Zero Motivation."

'Zero Motivation'

3.5 stars (out of five)

Director: Talya Lavie.

Cast: Dana Igvy, Nelly Tagar, Shani Klein.

Rating: Not rated, 100 minutes.

Note: At Harkins Camelview 5.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: twitter.com/goodyk.