Review:
"Disobedience"
Release Date: May 11, 2018
Rating: R Running Time: 114 minutes If A Fantastic Woman celebrated the resolve of the transgender community in the face of constant adversity, director Sebastián Lelio’s follow-up Disobedience concerns itself with the literal and figurative freedom that comes with being true to one’s sexual orientation. Based on the 2006 novel by Naomi Alderman, this British drama focuses on the renewed relationship between childhood friends and former lovers Ronit Krushka (Rachel Weisz) and Esti Kuperman (Rachel McAdams). New York-based photographer Ronit returns to London to attend the funeral of her rabbi father, whom she was estranged from since fleeing the Orthodox Jewish community he led. Ronit is stunned to learn that Esti, an affirmed lesbian, is now married to their friend, Dovid (Alessandro Nivola). Ronit’s father treated Dovid as the son he never had and groomed him to be his successor. Ronit’s surprise return home for her father’s funeral causes concern among her relatives and community members, who fear she may be a disruptive influenced. It also forces Esti to confront not just her feelings for Ronit but to question the life she has chosen for herself in Ronit’s long absence. Lelio takes us into a close-knit and guarded community to offer a profound examination of how faith and religious obligations can stifle personal belief, and can lead to the subjugation of women and sexual oppression. His direction is plain and simple, which heightens the complexities of the situation that finds Esti caught in the middle between Ronit and Dovid. In Ronit, Esti sees all the possibilities that life can offer as well as the sacrifices and the costs that come with starting over. For Esti, the acceptance of her community is as important to her as her faith. Disobedience does not ask Esti to question her faith but does press her into considering whether she is in the best environment to embark on the personal journey of discovery that she so desperately needs to undertake. Ronit allows Esti a glimpse of what it means to be shunned and unforgiven by those near and dear to you. The warmth and tenderness Weisz and McAdams share lends Disobedience an intimacy and an urgency befitting the circumstances. The assured Weisz serves as a calm, comforting and authoritative presence as a woman who needed to escape her past in order to secure a future she could build on her own terms. McAdams eloquently articulates Esti’s fear of both the known and the unknown as well as the burden that comes with concealing her true self to those around her. Lelio ensures Alessandro Nivola’s Dovid is presented as a kind and considerate husband—as opposed to just her symbolic jailer—who wants to do right by his wife but is guilty of trying to turn her into a person she is not. Nivola buries Dovid deep in introspection but allows Dovid’s jealousy of Ronit to cloud his judgment as matters progress. This is not to say that Disobedience holds Dovid solely responsible this marriage of convenience. It is partly a product of the world Esti was born into and wanted to remain a part of as a young woman, even if it meant suppressing her sexual identity. But it is hard to argue with the position Disobedience takes that, when you are ready, it is better to risk breaking the chains that bind than to remain psychologically and emotionally imprisoned. Robert Sims Aired: May 10, 2018 Web site: https://bleeckerstreetmedia.com/disobedience |
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