Disobedience: A Missed Opportunity!

This film was adapted from the novel of the same name written by Naomi Alderman.  Originally an Orthodox Jew from London, Naomi left the faith while writing this novel.  Naomi, although acknowledging that some aspects of her novel are based on her growing up in this community, insists that her novel is a work of fiction and not biographical.  In any case, I suspect that the novel is considerably better than the movie, which didn't translate all that well into film.  The movie was directed by Sebastian Lelio ("A Fantastic Woman") who, to his credit, generated terrific performances from Weisz and McAdams. The film opens when a charismatic Orthodox Rabbi, Rav Krushna (Anton Lesser), suddenly drops dead while he was in the midst of giving a passionate sermon focusing on God's "gift" of free will (which neither angels nor animals have).  His daughter and only child, Ronit (Rachel Weisz) is now a commercially-successful photographer, living in NYC.  She is single and doesn't have any children.  Ronit receives a phone call informing her of her father's death, and she is clearly shaken to the core.  Estranged from her father for many years, Ronit had apparently fled the circumscribed (or is it circumcised?) Orthodox community in London, although we don't know why.  Unlike Orthodox Jewish women, Ronit smokes cigarettes, doesn't wear a wig, and wears short skirts.  She decides to return to London for her father's funeral, where she must grapple with the issues she chose to escape from many years ago. Upon arriving in London, she is invited to stay with her prior teenage friend, Dovid (Alessandro Nivola) – who is now a Rabbi and the foremost disciple of Rabbi Krushna – and his wife, Esti (Rachel McAdams).  I can't say any more about the plot without spoiling it, but the subsequent events are interesting and, at times, emotionally-compelling. I only gave the movie a 7.0 (solid rental) because, in addition to it being too long and too slow, Dovid's character is poorly developed despite Dovid having the third-most-important role in the film.  He is unfortunately portrayed as being nearly devoid of personality. If you decide to see it at the theater, try to sneak in, just for me!  As my wife, Robin, often says, "Sometimes you just gotta be bad!"