Customer Reviews

A Stranger Among Us

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

OK, so it's not the best film in terms of police procedurals -- if you are looking for a hard-core crime drama, this isn't it. This movie was a spin-off from "Witness," which took place in the Amish community, and, like "Witness," the real value of "Stranger" is in the multi-cultural details and dialogue. The murder mystery is just a formula plot for presenting an introduction to Hasidic culture. Viewed as such, the film can be a useful teaching tool, and that's why I've been recommending it on my website's Hasidism FAQ. I myself use it in social studies classes here in rural Minnesota, where most of the students have never met any Jews at all, let alone Hasidim.

Now granted, there are some things in the film that are pure Hollywood, such as the little book referred to as "The Kabbalah" that reads like a sex manual. In real life, "kabbalah" is a collective term referring to Jewish mysticism. There is no one book called "The Kabbalah" any more than there is any one book called "The Zen." Although some kabbalstic texts do contain certain sexual imagery, the stuff that Ariel reads to Emily in the film is more like erotic love poetry. This serves a purpose in the story, but it's not Jewishly accurate, and for that, I'm docking it a star. On the other hand, the film does address some of the negative stereotypes about Hasidim, such as that ridiculous urban legend about the hole in the sheet. (NOT!)

The real "kabbalah" of the film is in the message about finding one's soulmate. In the beginning of the film, Ariel reads a line from his kabbalah book: "God counts the tears of women." He has no idea what this means, it's just words. Later, at the end of the movie, Ariel's Hasidic bride-to-be quotes this same line back to him. She explains what it means, then says: "It's in the kabbalah." From this, we know that they are true soulmates, even though this is the first time they have met face-to-face. Emily (the detective) has also decided to wait for her true soulmate, which is what she tells Levine, who has been making passes at her throughout the film. But Emily has now grown in her understanding of relationships, and knows that fooling around with the Levines of the world is not love.

There are some fine Hasidic scenes in the film, such as the Sabbath celebration, which shows both men's and a women's dance circles. Especially nice is the inclusion of a black couple at the Rebbe's table, presumably representing the Ethiopian Jews. The wedding scene is also well done. (Trivia: the music used for the wedding march is a Bobover Hasidic tune for "Lecha Dodi," the song which welcomes the Sabbath Bride of Friday night.) It is for these scenes that I find the film most useful in mlti-cultural education.

I picked this up on the recommendation of a friend. I really enjoyed it. I thought the presentation of the Hasidic community was well done and respectful...and added to the story. Even though the critics panned it, I thought Melanie was fine. A good Friday night stay-at-home-with-a-tub-of-buttered-popcorn movie.

This is an interesting film, especially for a cop flick, because it is more character-based than stereotypical Hollywood (car chases, gratuitous violence and shooting, big muscles, etc). And the role of Emily is a perfect multidimensional character-centered role. Not something you saw a lot of in mainstream Hollywood flicks prior to about the mid-1990's. However, Melanie Griffith is not appropriate for such a role. A fluffy comedic actor like Griffith only makes such a role appear melodramatic and overbearing. It's like using a meat cleaver to perform intricate brain surgery. This is not to say that Griffith is a bad actor (at least not for fluffy comedy), or that she couldn't master the subtlies of this type of acting some day; after all, look what Sylvester Stallone did in Cop Land (and if he can do it, anyone can do it). But she obviously failed in her role in this film.

The rest of the characters are also compellingly multidimensional, except, oddly enough, for who turns out to be the murderer.

I liked the film's positive multicultural flavor; what I also liked about the film was that it was made around the time that Hollywood started tayloring film's endings based on preferences of test audiences (around 1992), but this film's ending was obviously spared such a fate. The ending is cool, because it is realistic and shows Ariel's integrity--which I think was a graceful way to end things.

Some years ago I watched this film during a brus trip from Oviedo to Barcelona and it changed my life in a radical and most wonderful way. It discovered me the _bashert_ (= destiny, our other half) reality and Jewish life. It helped me to understand that meaning and warm are still available in the world. It introduce me the reality I have always dreamed to discover. So I have no words to express what this superb film did for me. If you want to discover something incredible about life, you should not miss it.

The only reason why I am giving this movie a 4 star rating instead of five is because it was slow at times. I thought the story line and acting was great. I don't know how accurate the actual depiction of the Orthodox Jewish community was, I don't really care, because in truth that's not the focus of the movie. They explore the ideals of the community and often times dwell on their depiction of it too much, but the focus of the story was two people who are from very different worlds and have to learn to cope with love and loss. Any one with a brain knows if you want to know the truth about a culture..go and experience it yourself..don't rely on a movie. So don't get bogged down in the specifics of this or that..just take it for what it is..entertainment. It will make ya cry though..so have some tissues near by. Really good movie.

Director Sidney Lumet is no hack - his resume includes classics such as "The Pawnbroker," "Serpico," "Dog Day Afternoon," and "Network." But every artist is entitled to the occasional misstep, and at least "A Stranger Among Us" is more an interesting failure than the outright disaster "The Wiz" was.

Lumet is dealing with a number of problems here, first and foremost among them a meandering script that can't quite decide what its main storyline should be. Ostensibly a crime drama centering on the murder of a merchant in Manhattan's diamond district (the stretch of 47th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues), it persists in wandering off in two other directions - Brooklyn's Hassidim community and its age-old traditions, and the threat of forbidden love between one of its members and the detective assigned to the case. While the scenes involving the religious rituals and customs add nothing to the plot, they at least are interesting and informative about a culture foreign to most viewers. Less compelling are those moments involving Ariel and Emily of the NYPD, since their interest in each other strains credulity, not only because their backgrounds make it unlikely, but due to the lack of any chemistry between Eric Thal and Melanie Griffith.


Griffith is Lumet's other major problem here. No doubt she was cast because at the time she was still Hollywood's flavor-of-the-month, but we are asked to suspend disbelief and accept her not only as a New York police officer, but as one who would be selected to go undercover and infiltrate the Jewish community and live with them as one of their own. Dying her blonde locks brown does nothing to make Griffith less the "shiksa" (Gentile woman) than she obviously is, and it's unlikely anyone in Crown Heights would have mistaken her for anything but. Yet - oddly enough - although plainly she's out of her element, the fish-out-of-water aspects of the story just don't work.

By the time whodunit is revealed, you may not care who was responsible for the nearly-forgotten crime lost in a jumble of sub-plots - but give it a moment or two of thought and you'll wonder how the victim's body could have been hidden where it was by the person implausibly identified as the killer. It's a plot twist that just isn't quite - forgive the pun - kosher.

The actors cast as the elder Jews and the atmosphere in which they live and worship add an air of authenticity that's missing from any of the scenes involving police procedures. Lee Richardson is impressive as the rebbe who, despite his misgivings, must welcome the street-smart female cop into his home. John Pankow, Mia Sara, and Jamey Sheridan do well in their small supporting roles, and James Gandolfini makes an appearance as a thug in a foreshadowing of his career as Tony Soprano, but Eric Thal is saddled with the almost impossible task of making us believe he would forsake his strong religious beliefs and dedication to Kabbalah for the hard-talking, gun-toting Griffith.


Despite its many flaws, "A Stranger Among Us" is one of those films that makes a long flight, rainy day, or dateless Friday night easier to endure. As a Lumet credit, it's a far cry from "Serpico," but a hell of a lot better than "The Wiz."

Don't listen to anyone who says it's a bad film - see it, and you will fall in love with the images bathed in warm glow. An intersting presentation of two different world existing in the same time at the same place.

OK, I'm biased -- so much of the action in this movie takes place very close to my hometown, and the police precinct was actually *our* police precinct when I was a kid. And every New Yorker is familiar, to a greater or lesser extent, with Hasidim, so this was a great chance to explore the culture from the "inside"; I think the movie did a great job of debunking the myths, it treated the religion with respect (always important to me), and the plot was actually believable.

So -- what was Melanie Griffith smoking when she sleep-walked through this role? She is the main character in this film, and her performance is so dead! There are so many places where a little passion was called for, a little emphasis, and the line comes out as if she had simply memorized it; even the places where she displays passion, it's as if someone had said, "Melanie, you really need to put a little more oomph into what you're saying here." This actress was not at all "invested" in this role -- she didn't become the character at all -- and that's what acting is all about, stepping out of yourself and putting on someone else's skin for awhile.

Bottom line: If you love to explore other cultures, if you are Jewish, if you live in close proximity to Jews -- definitely buy the movie. It's a beautiful description of the culture, and the final scenes lend credence to the whole premise that there's a "beschert" -- a "fate" -- for each of us in this world. If really good acting is important to you...well...I'd still buy the movie, but just be aware that the main character is just that, a character -- not a person.

The film is played to emphasize the culture clash between Hasidic Jewish culture and familiar modern America with it's lose of family and structure--unfortunately at the expense of believable plot at times. New York cop Emily Eden (Melanie Griffith) showing up to speak to a Hasidic Jewish Rabbi in a short skirt seems hardly likely. Nor is she a believable cast as a hardboiled cop with a policeman dad who has trouble showing affection, but it is perhaps just that lost quality that actually adds to the impact of the movie as Emily finds a sense of direction in her own life while losing her heart to a Hasidic Jew, Ariel (Eric Thal) in a doomed romance that will leave her a better person.

I pop in this movie frequently. There is something warm and inventive about this murder mystery/love story. Melanie Griffith is wonderful as the world-weary cop. Try this for a change of pace.