Search - Disobedience on DVD

B.J. W. (analogkid01) from CHICAGO, IL
Reviewed on 4/12/2024...

"Disobedience" is a 2017 film about three childhood friends in a London Orthodox Jewish community: Esti (Rachel McAdams), a closeted lesbian who in the past has had a clandestine relationship with Ronit (Rachel Weisz), a bisexual woman who is shunned for said relationship and has made her way to New York to become a successful photographer, and Dovid (Alessandro Nivola), an up-and-coming rabbi who has married Esti.

The film opens following the death of Ronit's father, the head rabbi in the community. Ronit has been gone for so long that people are shocked when she comes back for the funeral - even her father's official obituary lists him as "childless."

Her surprise return rekindles feelings that Esti has long been suppressing. It's a fairly straightforward story: desires burn, kisses are stolen, vows are tested, ambitions are threatened, frustrations mount, hotel rooms are rented.

A lesbian friend of mine once complained that movies about lesbians rarely have happy endings, and she's probably right (Cate Blanchett's "Carol" and the recent "Love Lies Bleeding" being two notable examples to the contrary). I wouldn't call the end of Disobedience "happy," but it's realistic - everyone comes to terms with the decisions they've made, and there is mutual understanding and acceptance between all three main characters. The women understand that their choices weren't made in a vacuum, and all three experience the consequences and repercussions thereof. The ending is also left open to a wide degree of interpretation - is the state of things at the end of the film the way things will be later in time? Perhaps, perhaps not.

A pretty good movie overall, enjoyable, nothing Earth-shattering. Oh and Robert Smith makes a cameo appearance.

Grade: B

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 2/2/2024...

Had potential but got worse, the more you watched it.