My Type of Film :-)

Before Shabbos Shuvah, I received in the mail a DVD of the movie Arranged; which I actually ordered a couple of months ago; but mysteriously never received. The reason why it came up on my radar again is that I was trying to compile some films for the new pledges of my sorority to watch and write about. In the last semester of my BA program, I actually took a film class on diversity in American films. My final paper was a survey of films that featured Orthodox Jews in America. Pity I did not see this film then, because most of those films were underwhelming.

Well the premise here has the potential to fall down very flat; a religious Jewish woman and a religious Muslim woman become friends...against all the odds. It is almost too cliche. But maybe it helped -- no, it definitely helped that the writer of the screenplay for this movie is an Orthodox Jew herself. I actually saw these women as real people and not caricatures. I did not have to sit through any rudimentary demonstrations of "look at how different and odd these people are". Nope; you just got right to the nitty-gritty of the situation. Two young women who are co-workers in New York, going through similar phases in life and relating to each other.

I was also pleasantly surprised at the multi-dimensional presentation of both Rochel and Nasira; I mean it could have been very easy to portray them as two goody-goodies living in a sinful society and have that be the end of it. However Nasira is shown to be quite a spitfire of a personality who speaks her mind. Rochel on the other hand is much more shy...even a bit unsure of herself. However I could completely see these women being friends in real life. They quickly discern that they have much more in common with each other than they do with any of the other people around them.

Of course no movie is perfect and movies featuring Orthodox Jews seem to often fall in this "not perfect" category. I could find very little in the way of redeeming qualities in Rochel's family. The dynamics of life in a frum family came through very poorly in this movie. The father seemed to have no personality and no opinions and really no point. The mother played the part of a token Jewish wife; but displayed little real motherly warmth, caring or consideration. At least there was some irony in that Mimi Lieber (who played Rochel's mother), is pretty olive-toned and if you would have thrown a hijab on her, she could have also played Nasira's mother. Of course no one in Rochel's family was too sympathetic to her befriending a Muslim woman. In fact her little brother made racist remarks so often, all you could do is hope he was joking (even though his tone of voice did not suggest this).

I was biased as a viewer and the movie was also biased from the screenplay - as centering more on the Orthodox Jewish side of the spectrum. Of course I did not mind this. But I did long for just a little bit more exposure into the daily/family life of a religious Muslim family. Of course, that would have made the movie into something a-la network mini-series and who has time for all of that? But I was so smitten with Nasira's character; I wanted her to by my friend. Like the type of chic you can really have fun hanging out with (maybe she is the Muslim version of me). She doesn't use her religion to hide behind and be apologetic for her personality. On the other side of the coin, I was quite surprised by Rochel's brief sojourn with her off the derech cousin Leah. Of course the whole scene with them at the party was incredibly cliche (blatant drug use, lasciviousness, irreverrant non-religious Jews, etc.); but it did convey the message that a person's choice to be religious is no more nutty or insane than the choice that some people make to live other types of lives.

I use to have this small goal of owning all of the Jamaican films I could. Now I might have to change this to Orthodox Jewish films. Just like the Jamaican films, there are some real duds. However it is very interesting to be on the outside looking in for a change. However I don't know if the most suitable audience for this film, Orthodox Jewish women, would even be interested in watching it based on the seemingly campy premise. They might even think that there is some sort of political agenda (yes, the conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians were mentioned...but as an offhanded remark by schoolchildren). It is really a shame because Arranged presents a really good opportunity to see religious Muslims functioning outside of the stereotype often presented to the frum community.