From: aryk@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (A.J.S. Nusbacher)
Subject: REVIEW: A STRANGER AMONG US
Reply-To: aryk@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (A.J.S. Nusbacher)
Organization: University of Toronto -- Hart House
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 16:38:26 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.movies,soc.culture.jewish
Summary: r.a.m.r. #01451
Keywords: author=Nusbacher

[Followups directed to both rec.arts.movies and soc.culture.jewish since
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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