-By Ray Bennett
For movie details, please click here.
First-time director Haim Tabakman's Cannes Un Certain Regard entry
Eyes Wide Open tells of the trouble that befalls a man who
is married with children when he outrages his severely orthodox
Jewish community in Jerusalem by falling in love with a young male
student.
The film is too slow-paced and insular for general audiences, but
it should prosper with gay and Jewish audiences that will respond
to its sober examination of beliefs so entrenched that they prompt
punitive measures against once-esteemed members.
Zohar Strauss plays Aaron, a young and apparently happy family man
whose true nature emerges only when he meets Ezri (Ran Danker), who
stumbles into his thriving butcher's shop to escape the rain.
Aaron's abrupt offer of a job and a place to stay seems prompted by
a wish to test his own faith, but the student's proximity leads to
greater intimacy that begins to spark gossip. Soon the pair runs
afoul of the community's "purity police," who are already harassing
a young woman who doesn't wish to marry a man of her father's
choice.
The observational detail is impressive and the two men's growing
affection is well-drawn, but Tabakman's depiction of the
conventions and strictures of religion and the impulses of two
closeted gay men are too understated to achieve universality.
-
The Hollywood Reporter
Film Review: Eyes Wide Open
Earnest but uninvolving tale of forbidden love.
Feb 5, 2010
-By Ray Bennett
For movie details, please click here.
First-time director Haim Tabakman's Cannes Un Certain Regard entry
Eyes Wide Open tells of the trouble that befalls a man who is married with children when he outrages his severely orthodox Jewish community in Jerusalem by falling in love with a young male student.
The film is too slow-paced and insular for general audiences, but it should prosper with gay and Jewish audiences that will respond to its sober examination of beliefs so entrenched that they prompt punitive measures against once-esteemed members.
Zohar Strauss plays Aaron, a young and apparently happy family man whose true nature emerges only when he meets Ezri (Ran Danker), who stumbles into his thriving butcher's shop to escape the rain. Aaron's abrupt offer of a job and a place to stay seems prompted by a wish to test his own faith, but the student's proximity leads to greater intimacy that begins to spark gossip. Soon the pair runs afoul of the community's "purity police," who are already harassing a young woman who doesn't wish to marry a man of her father's choice.
The observational detail is impressive and the two men's growing affection is well-drawn, but Tabakman's depiction of the conventions and strictures of religion and the impulses of two closeted gay men are too understated to achieve universality.
-
The Hollywood Reporter
