this review originally appeared in the latter group. -Moderator]
A STRANGER AMONG US
"Stop Her Before She Acts Again"
By Aryeh J.S. Nusbacher
Copyright 1992 Aryeh J. S. Nusbacher
Perhaps Melanie Griffith was once a good actress. I certainly saw WORKING GIRL without finding her annoying. But when I went to see A STRANGER AMONG US this week, I went with the expectation that her abysmal performance in SHINING THROUGH had been a bad moment. I hoped that with good script and a top gun like Sidney Lumet directing she would be believable. I was disappointed.
A STRANGER AMONG US puts Melanie Griffith, playing a police detective, in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn to investigate the disappearance of a young member of the community. Emily, the detective, prefers to shoot it out with "scumbags" rather than call for backup. After this habit gets her partner and lover stabbed, she is given a bit of light duty. She is supposed to be a "ba'al teshuvah," a penitent, which excuses the fact that she is obviously not a life-long Hasid. Unlike WITNESS, the obvious comparison, the premise does not justify the plot. Surprisingly, it's still not a bad movie.
If one can believe that the New York Police will infiltrate a detective into any ethnic community that has had a member disappear; and if one can believe that any rational police commander would send a woman rather than a man to infiltrate a patriarchal community, then one can swallow the premise. The plot is supposed to trace our detective's development as a person from the mini-skirted, foul-mouthed woman who sleeps with her co-worker and doesn't call for help when she needs it; to a modest, thoughtful cop who acts as a team player and doesn't put the milk carton into the meat refrigerator. The fact that the plot is based on Griffith's abysmal acting makes it irrelevant to the movie. Seeing it is like going to an opera, and being fascinated by the opera house's architecture instead of the action on stage. Fortunately, the movie provides some pretty architecture.
The romantic tension in the movie is between Griffith's Emily and the heir-apparent to the Hasidic dynasty, Ariel. The romance survives Griffith's complete unattractiveness (her voice would be a useful abrasive in the diamond district) because to the general viewer any fully-grown man who is a virgin will likely go after anything in a skirt. Even to the Orthodox Jewish viewer (many of whom are kept away from the movie by it's opening during a traditional three week season of mourning) it is believable -- Emily, even with a long skirt and a wig that looks like a wig, is the Eternal Shiksa, the constant temptation to Jewish men.
The Jewish aspects of the film are complicated and occasionally amusing. The film opens with alternating views of the Hasidic world and the police world. The brightly-lit life of a New York cop is made to seem familiar, if not from the viewer's own experience then from the viewer's experience with police movies. The sepia-tone world of the Hasidim, lit with 40 watt incandescent bulbs, is made to seem quite separate, though the designer is careful not to allow it to seem completely alien. To the Jewish-educated viewer, the movie is starkly showing a familiar dichotomy made clearer by the distinctively accented Hebrew of children singing the Grace after Meals, and the striped woolen tsitsit of the Hasidim. In between the two worlds is the diamond shop that Ariel, his sister Leah, and their friend Mara work in. With the broad counter acting as a barrier between the worlds, this place has neither the stark fluorescent lighting of the police station nor the bright light of the city streets.
The effect of the mistakes in representing the Hasidim are not jarring in this film (remember the guffaws in WITNESS at the idea of a Hasid reading the "Jerusalem Post"). Ariel's name and Hebrew accent are more Modern Orthodox than Hasidic, but that only makes him seem less alien to the Jewish viewer. In fact, the Jewish-educated viewer feels like a secret partner of the faceless consultant who helped with this local colour, smiling at the occasional lapse and appreciating the fine points, such as the representation of a house in mourning.
It is never made clear just which sect the Hasidim in the movie are supposed to represent. When one is in the diamond-cutting workshop of the missing Hasid, there is an Israeli tourism poster clearly displayed to let us know that these are not the Satmar. At the Rebbe's shabbat table, he is flanked by men colourfully dressed to represent Yemenite and Ethiopian Jews, making it clear that the Rebbe is not an insular leader. The Rebbe, a survivor of Auschwitz, an accomplished linguist, a sensitive parent, is an ideal generic picture of the Hasidic Rebbe's appearance to the outsider. Care is taken not to allow the Hasidim to seem otherworldly -- a word processor is prominently displayed in the Rebbe's outer office, and the characteristic large station wagon with no hubcaps is prominently displayed.
The Kaballah plays an important part in this film. Ariel hides a small book inside his talmudic tractate, illicitly exploring the depths of mysticism (warned by his friend that he is too young). The Kaballah acts as an emblem of enlightenment, providing Ariel with the erotic vocabulary necessary to make him a credible love interest; and giving him a way to be a maverick without compromising his devotion to his faith. The rolling up of the Kaballah into a single pocket-sized volume can be forgiven, since neither the ordinary viewer nor the ordinary police detective needs a lecture on the difference between the "Zohar" and the "Kuzari."
Mia Sara, who played the leading lady in FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF, plays the Rebbe's daughter, Emily's guide in the Hasidic world. She is an unfortunate sidekick for Griffith's detective, because while the contrast between the modest Hasidic girl and the brash cop is salutary; the contrast between the excellent actress playing a complex part and the Box Office Star trying to act is pathetic. Sara brings a matter-of-fact attitude to her role, making the Hasidic world seem rational and ordinary; and her dignity and modesty are such that when she is humourous she is not laughable.
The music by Jerry Bock will delight klezmer aficionadoes, though there are some scenes in which the Hasidim do not lip-synch terribly well to the studio choir. One place in which the consultant must have cringed was when a cheerful shabbat celebration continues to the sound of a lone female voice -- beautiful, and familiar to modern klezmer listeners, but anathema to the turbo-Orthodox. The costuming, which does not seem like a difficult task, seem overly stiff; as though the entire Hasidic community has just picked up all their clothes from the dry-cleaner's, without the well-worn look that one sees in real people's clothing.
On the Jewish Movie scale, in which THE CHOSEN is five stars and THE MAD ADVENTURES OF RABBI JACOB is one star, I give this one three stars.
- 30 -
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