Une étrangère parmi nous

Here's a very low-key movie that centers around Hassidic Jews and their lifestyles, similar to what "Witness" was with the Amish people. I found it to be interesting look at the Hassidic way of life.

The first half of the film is much better than the second half, or this would rated higher. It has two big things going for it: wonderful golden-hued cinematography and not much gratuitous sex and profanity. It's probably too low-key, at least in that second half which needed more suspense and action to be a better-liked and known film.

Despite being difficult believing the soft-spoken Melanie Griffith as a tough NYC cop, she still does an excellent job in the lead role and Eric Thai, ditto, as the romantic interest. There are a few disappointments in the last part of the film but the very ending is good and surprised me.

Detective Emily Eden (Melanie Griffith) is an aggressive NYPD detective. Her partner Nick gets shot. She is assigned to find a missing Hasidic Jew named Yaakov. She discovers that he's been killed and $720k of diamonds are missing. She thinks it's an inside job and goes undercover in the community with the help of the rebbe's adopted son (Eric Thal) and daughter Leah (Mia Sara). Mara (Tracy Pollan) is Yaakov's widow.

Melanie Griffith is horrible as the tough as nail cop. She is laughable at the role. Then she goes into the conservative Jewish world like a bull in a china shop. It's an interesting world but it's treated with a heavy hand by Griffith's flirtatious character. Director Sidney Lumet has the wrong leading lady and it's too broadly written anyways. I'm sure a modern policewoman undercover in the Hasidic world could be interesting but Griffith is not doing it right.

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.

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")

I'd say this movie was a showcase of ham, but then, I respect Jews. (And no, I'm not Jewish).

First off, Melanie Griffith as a hard-boiled cop is like casting Prissy from "Gone With The Wind" as Dirty Harry. Her "bad-ass mama justice" remarks come off about as well as they would if they were cooed by Linda Lovelace in the script of a porn movie. Seeing her simper and flirt and do all that coy crap around the young Talmudic scholar also disgusted me. I mean, the woman was assigned to investigate a disappearance in the Hasidic community and she shows up in a mini-skirt and says "s**t" in front of the rebbe within the first five minutes of the interview. Was she nodding off during all those diversity training seminars and community relations lectures at the police academy or what? Even if she was, wouldn't you expect someone who grew up in New York to have at least *some* familiarity with Judaism?

She treats every one of the Hasidim with arrogant condescension, in the type of "rude asshole" role that makes a viewer's teeth ache, yet we're supposed to somehow care whether, by the end of the movie, she's managed to understand and perhaps even respect them somewhat. And most of her "respect" is an outgrowth of her having the hots for Rebbe, Jr. Between insulting both Hasidic spirituality and the ability of a woman to perform as a professional without falling for some guy -- I mean, does our "heroine" do this on EVERY assignment or something? -- this movie is a busy two hours. Too bad it wasn't a better spent two hours for me. Thumbs DOWN.