Disobedience (2018)

Beautifully acted by Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams and Alessandro Nivola as the three points of a melancholy romantic triangle, this is a deeply felt drama that exerts a powerful grip.

The elegance of Disobedience, which in the wrong hands could be sensational and one-dimensional, cannot be overstated.

This is richly satisfying and powerfully acted work.

Disobedience‘s journey is one of authentic emotional honesty excelling in instances of insecurity and fear.

Disobedience unfolds quietly but passionately, with a generosity of spirit toward its three central characters.

It is a love story, as beautiful as it is devastating.

The women are remarkable, unforgettable. But don’t overlook Nivola, an enigmatic figure as the rabbi and husband.

The performances, like the film, are rich, layered things of tremendous feeling and complexity. The characters, like the film, are imperfect but well worthy of cherishing.

A gorgeously acted, written and directed spellbinder.

If the film itself feels like a little less than the sum of its provocative premise, it’s still moving in its own unshowy way: a quietly profound exploration of identity, sacrifice, and the connection all human beings long for, whether or not their God or their family or their community approves.

A Suffocating Yet Luminous Portrait of Forbidden Devotion and the Cost of Spiritual Freedom.210209 (3.5)Our love, granted by heaven yet forbidden by freedom. Without resorting to melodramatic clichés of falling in love or agonizing over romance, it purely and solely shows how suffocating the very existence of this love is in a world devoid of true freedom. Like fish out of water barely gasping for air, the two women meet each other and finally breathe to their hearts' content. Thanks to the two brilliant lead actors, the portrayal of those moments of uninhibited breathing shone brightly, which made the ending all the more clearly heartbreaking. I learned that in Orthodox Judaism, fundamental discrimination exists to the point where women must gather entirely on the second floor of the synagogue to hear the scripture separately. I truly adore Rachel Weisz; she is so insanely gorgeous. Rachel McAdams appears as well! Do Orthodox Jewish women really have to wear such identical, suffocating wigs with a middle part? I had no idea these two actresses would commit this intensely, so the sheer sensuality took me completely by surprise. Lightly skipping any gratuitous **** scene was an exceptional choice. Just seeing the victim's distressed expression, followed by her gathering her clothes and vomiting after time has passed, tells us everything we need to know. The funeral memorial hymn was so breathtakingly beautiful—almost choir-level—that it sparked unnecessary curiosity: does one have to sing that well to become a rabbi, and when on earth did they assign those vocal harmony parts? While Dovid felt so pitiful, I also thought that this represents the true teachings of a saint. Dovid, who loved both of the women who loved each other—one as a friend, one as a wife—leaves such a bittersweet, aching impression. Directed by Sebastián Lelio, this adaptation of Naomi Alderman's novel delves into the stifling confines of a strict Orthodox community in North London, capturing the quiet revolution of bodily autonomy and spiritual rebirth that ensues when an estranged woman returns home following her father's death.

This is not a good movie. Making it politically correct does not improve its quality. At best it is mediocre. That can be said about the script and performance. Directing is, I am afraid, even worse than that. Cinematography is excellent though.

A fairly good lesbian film, but once again I am tired of these... "cheating" films, and they only seem to exist in the lesbian subgenre.

This is quite a good film. Its one where its what isn't said that says it all. Its all about acceptance and conformity within a jewish family. The acting is good and its pretty thought provoking. I liked the soft music played in the background - not too over bearing. I thought it was quite poignant at times, with hushed dialogue, two people trying to maintain a relationship in obviously disapproving circumstances.

I do not know the book on which the film was based, but what is most appreciated is that he knew how to recreate the moral dilemma of abiding by faith, based on strict rules, or following the instinct inspired by love; this without falling into the scandalous. One of those that is required to see with an open mind.

Es una película dramática; la trama es buena y las actuaciones de Rachel Weisz y Rachel McAdams son excelentes; es recomendable.

amazing story, shows the reality of a lot of people around the globe, and show it in a very good way

I have given this movie a three out of ten not because it is a bad movie, in fact it isn't. The acting is great. The story, although sad, is decent enough and the setting, although dominated by drab grey is okay, if not a little dull. You can say that while it isn't a master piece, it is an okay movie. So why the low score? This is because the movie infuriated me. Let me explain(spoilers ahead). Contrary to what you might think the central character in this story is not Rachel Weisz although the story is told from her perspective. In fact it is Rachel McAdams. She is married to Alessandro Nivola and they are part of a orthodox Jewish community. In fact he is a Rabbi. The three of them used to be friends until Weisz left one day for New York. The movie kicks off when Weisz decides to return after hearing that her father has died. The center theme in this movie is duty versus freedom and this is expressed quite bluntly at some point when McAdams asks her husband to set her free and tells him that she is pregnant and does not want her child to grow up in a world that left her no choice. Another blunt moment is when Nivola makes a speech about duty near the end of the movie. The movie is quite blunt in other things too. For instance, Weisz finds out that almost nobody wanted her to come back and this is pointed out by a newspaper article that says that her father died childless and when she hears her father left her nothing in his will. Her existence is not merely denied: she doesn't exist. There is more. When she enters her father's house together with McAdams the song Lovesong by The Cure is played and specifically these lines: Whenever I'm alone with you make me feel like I am home again. But even more! Prior to Weisz leaving New York we get an unloving short sex scene between her and a man that is contrasted against the drawn out sex scene between Weisz and McAdams later in the movie. In fact any sex that is mentioned with a man is made out to be obligatory and loveless. During the movie we get a few things revealed. The two women had a love relation, something that is and was unacceptable in the community. Nivola and McAdams married because he wanted to help her get over 'it' and she was told that she was not right in her head(this is literal from the movie). We also get told that McAdams was the one who informed Weisz about the death of her father and that she did it deliberately to get Weisz to come back. The two girls always were attracted to women, but they never did anything with it, not even Weisz who had broken with the shackles of her past. In fact we are told that she never met anyone and apparently engaged in quickies with men. Essentially the movie is because McAdams informed Weisz about her fathers death. This made the latter come over from the US and this is what McAdams wanted. You would then expect that this would result in something but this is not what happens. In fact McAdams is almost unseen in the first part of the movie and the two girls hardly respond to each other. And then suddenly about a third in they hit it off which cumulates into a long sex scene about halfway in. Then the movie see-saws as McAdams cannot make up her mind and Weisz not doing much more than trying to flee. Eventually this leads to the moment where McAdams asks her freedom from Nivola. Which then is totally undone when Nivola makes a speech in the Synagogue that comes down to: duty is important. Weisz doesn't have any kind of character arc. She is the same as when the movie started and her trick is to flee. But fleeing has gained her nothing. She is a lonely figure who has quick sex with men whom she doesn't love and she has no family and probably dies a lonely death. She has become nothing. McAdams has a character arc of sorts but it is only to make her end up where she started. McAdams might not have found love but she had found her role in life: that of being the mother of her child and the wife of her husband. She has become something. What infuriates me is that the whole movie is aimed at rubbing this is by leaving no alternatives. The whole 'lesbian' affaire is there to contrast the two women and the whole story railroads them to an outcome. But what takes the cake is near the end. Weisz drives off in a taxi, but McAdams runs after her. They kiss passionately and then nothing happens. Yeah, they wanted to make sure you go the message.

Ótimo filme, é meio lentinho mas a mensagem que passa é muito linda e importante.

You see, this is what the SJW camp doesn't understand: I am neither female, nor gay, nor Jewish, yet this movie HAD me completely. Here's how hard it had me: I take sleeping pills (Venezuelan refugee, please don't judge). Usually, if I stay up too late after taking my pills, the drowsiness will even affect my speech. Yet I started watching this after dinner and my pills and I couldn't freaking sleep! This movie would not let go of me until it was over. So gripping! So take THAT, SJWs. Even though this movie wasn't "made for me" like Brie Larson says, it hooked up til the very last second. I'm giving it a 9 because it has slight rhythmic problems, but this is the kind of movie that takes an unrelenting, yet unprejudiced look at religious zeal, that an SJW wouldn't even dream of making. Please keep this type of cinema coming! It is desperately needed!

Disobedience is very well made. The cinematography, dialogue, and acting is fantastic. The story, however, is rather simplistic. I think it was intentional as it's very clear what message this film is trying to get across, but it left me searching for more in the end.

A well-told love-story set against a background of religious orthodoxy Depicting the problems that can arise when deeply held spiritual beliefs clash with notions of personal freedom, Disobedience is the story of a forbidden love given a second chance. Based on Naomi Alderman's 2006 novel, written for the screen by Sebastián Lelio and Rebecca Lenkiewicz, and directed by Lelio, the film deals with a lesbian relationship within London's relatively insular Modern Orthodox Jewish community. Uninterested in presenting a binary story where faith is the Big Bad, although the film is certainly critical of the strictures that can result from a rigid application of Jewish religious law, the community itself is depicted respectfully. When Rav Kruschka (Anton Lesser) dies in the midst of a service, his estranged daughter Ronit (Rachel Weisz) returns home from New York, heading to the house of Dovid (a superb Alessandro Nivola), her childhood friend, and Kruska's protégé. Although the community isn't happy to see her, Dovid offers her a spare room. She accepts and is stunned to learn he is married to Esti (Rachel McAdams), another childhood friend. Over the next few days as the community prepare for Krushka's funeral, it becomes clear that Ronit and Esti were once more than friends, and the more time they spend in one another's company, the more their suppressed feelings come to the surface. Thematically, Disobedience is far more concerned with the clash of views that result from Ronit's return than it is with condemning the beliefs of the community per se. On paper, the story might lend itself to a condemnation of the kind of social suffocation and emotional repression that can result from fundamentalism. Instead, however, the film spends time building a respectful, if not idealised, picture of the community. A key part in this is Dovid himself. In a less nuanced film, he would be a fire-and-brimstone Roger Chillingworth-type, an obstacle to Ronit and Esti's happiness. Instead he is presented as someone who faces a difficult choice - that between his communal position and his faith on the one hand, and his genuine love of Esti and affection for Ronit on the other. However, for all that, the film never lets you forget that this is a community where married women must wear a sheitel wig in public and where the genders are strictly divided at religious services. As Ronit and Esti discuss their sexuality, Esti points out that she and Dovid have sex every Friday night, "as is expected", and that the reason she was married to him in the first place was that Krushka hoped "marriage would cure" her lesbian desire. In this sense, although respectful of the community, the film certainly challenges its myopic sexism. Obviously, a major theme is sexuality. There are actually two sex scenes in the film; one between Ronit and Esti, and the other between Esti and Dovid. And although they couldn't be more different, they also couldn't exist without one another, as the abandonment, lust, and sense of pressure being released when Esti is with Ronit contrasts sharply with the detached, formulaic, and passionless scene with Dovid. The scene between Ronit and Esti is the physical manifestation of the characters' long-repressed desire. It's a wholly justified narrative moment, and a necessary beat for the two characters. It's not an aside or a piece of voyeuristic male fantasy, it's the centre of the whole film. Together, the two scenes represent Esti's binary choice - an unbridled and sexually fulfilling, but unstable relationship with Ronit, or a dutiful and dull, but respectful and secure relationship with Dovid. If I had one major criticism, it would be that although Lelio's direction is subtle, some of his and Lenkiewicz's writing choices are spectacularly on the nose. The opening sermon is a good example - a religious diatribe whose subject is mankind's freedom to choose, the concomitant ability to disobey, and the notion that freedom is impossible without sacrifice, in a film about these very same issues. The worst example of this, however, is found when Ronit and Esti go to Krushka's house and Ronit turns on the radio, which just so happens to be playing The Cure's "Lovesong", a song which perfectly encapsulates their situation. These issues aside though, this is an excellently crafted film. Once again examining female desire, issues of patriarchal oppression, and profound self-doubt, Lelio delivers a mature and considered meditation on the conflict between faith and sexuality. Equal parts sensual and spiritual, the lethargic pace and absence of any narrative fireworks will probably alienate some, but for the rest of us, this is thoughtful and provocative cinema.

My favorite film of 2018. Perfectly executed. You feel the oppression, the longing. The acting is outstanding. Each scene reveals just enough. Here's what I thing Rachel McAdams does better than anyone else: you see her character and think "man, I want someone to love me like that." I can't wait to watch it again.

what a performance from duo Rachel! Talking about love, faith & freedom in a cold way.

Sebastian Lelio es uno de los realizadores latinoamericanos más importantes de esta época. Se hizo notar el 2013 con Gloria, pero el año pasado sorprendió con "Una mujer fantástica", la historia de Marina, una mujer transgenero que debe sobreponerse a las limitaciones, después de la muerte de su pareja. El hecho de que un director halla decidido tocar una temática,algo polémico, sobre todo en esta parte del mundo, y abogar por una comunidad es importante, y mucho más si lo hace bien. Lo más destacable es el guión de Rebecca Lenkiewicz, que se encargó de adaptar Ida (2013) ahora adapta Desobediencia, también un libro escrito por Naomi Alderman. Este, que se encuentra lleno de metáforas, como las pelucas que usa Esti, que puede significar como oculta su verdaderos sentimientos. Lo que se debe y lo que se quiere; unos de los temas principales de la película, los sentimientos y los deseos reprimidos. Está escrito con humanidad y fuerte realismo, rosando en partes la perfección. Separa y equilibra los temas que se propone, no se limita a contar con los clichés de este tipo de historias, sino que explora diversos temas y genera tensión en ciertas escneas, trayendo así una historia hermosa, que habla sobre la libertad, la sumisión la sexualidad y la fe. Aparte del guión lo mas destacable de esta cinta son las estupendas actuaciones. Ambas actrices ofrecen una excelente y conmovedora presentación. Desobediencia pone a Sebastián Lelio como uno de los mejores realizadores de nuestra época.

Chilean director filmed mostly in London his 1st English-language film. Some critics have said the ending is vague. True. Also there are no flashbacks. We know the 3 main characters were friends, the 2 girls had a sexual encounter and the Rachel Weisz character moved away. So the past is vague too. But the vague past and future contribute to the power of the film. It also helps, of course, that the 3 main performances are fine. An honest film you will probably want to talk about afterwards.

Disobedience its a great film, its a realistic and human history so powerful and with great performances by the three main **** chemestry between both Rachels its so real. The movie its so diferent from regular movies its uses the face expresions to communicate and transmits feelings, the looks, the breathing, the nuances. Its a powerful history of love, to be free to love who you want to love. This movie deserves to be seen and also to get in the awards.

Remarcable performances by Rachel Weisz, Rachel Mcadams and Alexandro Nivola.This films its heartbreaking and beutiful, the love history between the two Rachels its so touching you can feel the longing, the represion and everithing goes off with so much passion, the love scene its one of the best i have seen so far it shows eroticism without using nudity. Its a beatiful love history where people can get identify by, the final message its a good one,men or woman should be free to love who we really love and be who we really are. Its about freedom a choice. This movie its awards material.

Beautiful and Heartbreaking film. Disobedience is a movie that everybody can identify with it, when you feel lonely, depressed and hopeless and the only thing you want is being happy or find your dream but sadly is impossible and you feel dead inside, Disobedience show this ..honest and real . This production is totally deep and authentic that your heart is broken when you see it , everything is perfect : the acting, direction, cinematography, music, screenplay. Deserves to be seen 10/10 . Hopes for a 2 Movie, Thank You to Rachel Weisz, Sebastian L, Rachel Mcadams and all involved on bring this Masterpiece on this World, it's totally necessary.

Disobedience is not a perfect movie, but the acting is so superb by all 3 leads (and also the small but pivotal role of the rav) that its failings are diminished. It is wonderful to see such naturalistic performances delivered. Unfortunate that the whole look of the film is so somber, but these actors shine very brightly. Of course, the sex scene gets alot of attention in the media, but the quiet scenes are also quite poignant and powerful. I venture to say that you could watch the entire movie with the mute on and it still would convey its truths. I truly feel that it was one of the best and most indelible movies I've seen this year and I've seen MANY.