Let me put this simply – if you’re part of a group and a member of that group spies you sharing one fully-clothed public kiss with a peer and decides upon viewing that it’s time to threaten your group status and your job with a formal complaint to both your leader and your employer, it is time to get a new group. I’d like to say there are exceptions to this pronouncement, but I honestly cannot think of any at the present time.
Ronit Krushka (Rachel Weisz) removed herself from her Orthodox Jewish tribe more than a decade ago. I don’t believe the film tells us exactly why, but the fact that she’s a lesbian in a group that doesn’t recognize homosexuality … and her father is the head rabbi, well, there are more than the usual amount of daddy issues tied up here, huh? Rabbi dad has one pulpit too many and dies while talking about personal freedom, a telling sign. The death instigates Ronit’s surprise reunion with her old pals, vice-rabbi Dovid Kuperman (Alessandro Nivola) and his lesbian wife Esti Kuperman (Rachel McAdams). Suffice to say Ronit didn’t know they were married.
Ok, that’s it. That’s pretty much your picture. Oh, wait, I forgot the key plot point (in case you didn’t already figure it out) – Ronit and Esti are ex-lovers. Now. There it is. That’s the picture in its entirety. There could be many ways you go with this, of course; Disobedience chose next to none of them. The film is about a love triangle where only two of the people love each other, but the third holds all the power. It takes a while to get there because the film wanted very badly to establish tone. Yes, you are a dour, humorless people. I get it. Yes, losing your leader makes you doubly so. Yes, I see you have little room for shenanigans. Well, gosh, the dead leader’s estranged daughter making out with the would-be successor’s wife 
might just cause an issue, yes. Please, please give me some more background to go with the background. I don’t understand yet.
Disobedience may not have been the most indulgent lesbian affair on celluloid, but it sure did let us know why we were there. That’s right, it’s forbidden. Hell, it’s right there in the title. Here’s an entire congregation of folks with rulers shoved squarely up their collective asses. You! Woman! Put on your wig! Don’t touch any man! Sit over there! Hush! The men are talking! We have earned the right to our big black hats because we have penises! Ok, that’s not entirely fair; the non-Rachel women in the film are equally as uptight. But then this plot comes along as a savior – look, how lurid! Women kissing! Women touching! So shocking! It’s wrong! Don’t you want to look some more? You shouldn’t, should you? Here’s some more anyway. Don’t look! Why are you looking?
This is what happens when you base a plot around something that might have been racy a decade ago. As is, the blog itself has already examined the anal retentive world of Ultra-Orthodox Judaism in films like Félix et Meira and Fading Gigolo. In this version, I can’t say I thought much of the plot or the pacing … especially the pacing. I did, however, enjoy the performances from the two names and Alessandro, the helpless sap who has to come between two legitimate movie stars. And if that’s all a film needed to be awesome, I’d be set.
Years after a daughter’s crossover
A synagogue announces turnover
Once shunned all things gay
Can this tribe change its way?
Or will LGBTQ get another Passover?
Rated R, 114 Minutes
Director: Sebastián Lelio
Writer: Sebastián Lelio, Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Genre: Your religion bites, too
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Lesbians, maybe?
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Very conservative Jewish communities
