Uma Estranha Entre Nós

Director Sidney Lumet is no hack - his resume includes classics such as "The Pawnbroker," "Serpico," "Dog Day Afternoon," and "Network." But every artist is entitled to the occasional misstep, and at least "A Stranger Among Us" is more an interesting failure than the outright disaster "The Wiz" was.

Lumet is dealing with a number of problems here, first and foremost among them a meandering script that can't quite decide what its main storyline should be. Ostensibly a crime drama centering on the murder of a merchant in Manhattan's diamond district (the stretch of 47th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues), it persists in wandering off in two other directions - Brooklyn's Hassidim community and its age-old traditions, and the threat of forbidden love between one of its members and the detective assigned to the case. While the scenes involving the religious rituals and customs add nothing to the plot, they at least are interesting and informative about a culture foreign to most viewers. Less compelling are those moments involving Ariel and Emily of the NYPD, since their interest in each other strains credulity, not only because their backgrounds make it unlikely, but due to the lack of any chemistry between Eric Thal and Melanie Griffith.

Griffith is Lumet's other major problem here. No doubt she was cast because at the time she was still Hollywood's flavor-of-the-month, but we are asked to suspend disbelief and accept her not only as a New York police officer, but as one who would be selected to go undercover and infiltrate the Jewish community and live with them as one of their own. Dying her blonde locks brown does nothing to make Griffith less the "shiksa" (Gentile woman) than she obviously is, and it's unlikely anyone in Crown Heights would have mistaken her for anything but. Yet - oddly enough - although plainly she's out of her element, the fish-out-of-water aspects of the story just don't work.

By the time whodunit is revealed, you may not care who was responsible for the nearly-forgotten crime lost in a jumble of sub-plots - but give it a moment or two of thought and you'll wonder how the victim's body could have been hidden where it was by the person implausibly identified as the killer. It's a plot twist that just isn't quite - forgive the pun - kosher.

The actors cast as the elder Jews and the atmosphere in which they live and worship add an air of authenticity that's missing from any of the scenes involving police procedures. Lee Richardson is impressive as the rebbe who, despite his misgivings, must welcome the street-smart female cop into his home. John Pankow, Mia Sara, and Jamey Sheridan do well in their small supporting roles, and James Gandolfini makes an appearance as a thug in a foreshadowing of his career as Tony Soprano, but Eric Thal is saddled with the almost impossible task of making us believe he would forsake his strong religious beliefs and dedication to Kabbalah for the hard-talking, gun-toting Griffith.

Despite its many flaws, "A Stranger Among Us" is one of those films that makes a long flight, rainy day, or dateless Friday night easier to endure. As a Lumet credit, it's a far cry from "Serpico," but a hell of a lot better than "The Wiz."

There is not much of a plot in this movie and fortunately it wastes relatively little time in developing it. Melanie Griffith is miscast as a cop. However, her acting, while not great, is not as bad as some have said. The main point of the movie, as far as I am concerned, is to portray aspects of the Hasidic community, which most people do not know much about. This movie tells much more about the Hasidim than Witness told of about the Amish. For this alone the movie is worth watching.

Technically a mystery, the real focus was on the movement of Griffith from an OK life toward a real life. While she enjoyed being a cop and having a good partner, one quietly becomes aware of how shallow and lonely her life really is. No friends, no supportive family, no grounding, and certainly no joy.

Her immersion into a vibrant religious community slowly opens her eyes. The scene of the joy filled celebration of Sabbath is beautifully well done. Being treated as a daughter by the Rebbe who also understood what it meant to deal with evil as much as she did was key. That she is attracted to a handsome man is secondary to her attraction to what he represented - integrity, knowing who he was, using a range of natural and developed gifts, being an integral part of a supportive community, and finding joy within a chosen structure.

There is one rather violent scene, and the language while accurate, is questionable for all family members.

I truly enjoyed this movie, despite bad reviews and comments about Melanie Griffith's role being not suited to her. It takes a cynical worldly woman cop (Griffith) into the strange world of Orthodox Jews when she goes undercover to investigate a murder. Her gradual acceptance into that world and growing respect for their customs and traditions was very moving to me. The warmth in the family meals and celebrations can be felt by the viewer and lets you understand how this cloistered world with rules for everything starts to look good to a woman who is so jaded and cynical in her outlook on life. The attraction between her and a Talmudic student provides sexual tension to the storyline, and the concept of finding the one person in all the world who was meant for you was so romantic.

In New York, Detective Emily Eden (Melanie Griffith) is a tough detective and daughter of a former cop. When her partner Nick (Jamey Sheridan) is stabbed during an arrest of two drug dealers, Emily is assigned to a case of missing person, Yaakov Klausman, in a Hasidic community. However she discovers that Yaakov, who worked cutting diamonds, was murdered. Emily concludes that Yaakov knew the killer and asks the rebbe (Lee Richardson) permission to work undercover in the community. The rebbe brings Emily to his home and his stepdaughter Leah (Mia Sara) and his stepson Ariel (Eric Thal) help her to know people in the community and understand their habits and rules. Emily works in a department store with Leah, Ariel and Yaakov's fiancée Mara (Tracy Pollan), who was former drug addicted embraced by Yaakov and the rebbe, and her partner Levine (John Pankow) gives support to her. Meanwhile Emily falls in unrequited love with Ariel. When the gangsters Tony Baldessari (James Gandolfini) and Chris Baldessari (Chris Collins) threaten the group to sell protection to them, Emily believes she has resolved the case. But soon she has a discussion with Ariel and she concludes that the killer is another person from the community.

"A Stranger Among Us" is an underrated movie that entwined crime, drama and romance. The story is well constructed, disclosing a totally different society in the Twentieth Century in New York City. Most of the bad reviews of the critics are based on the similarities of this movie with 1985 "Witness", but anyway "A Stranger Among Us" is an engaging film. The first time I saw this movie in the 90's, I did not understand how and independent woman like Emily Eden could fall in love with Ariel, but this time I have understood her need of fraternal love. This movie is basically the debut of James Gandolfini. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Uma Estranha Entre Nós" ("A Stranger Among Us")