Disobedience (2018)

One thing needs to be said at the very beginning: Disobedience isn't a movie for everybody. I don't mean that in reference to the story, which in itself may be seen as quite controversial, as I think anyone deciding to watch the movie more or less knows what it is about. I'm talking about the pacing of the movie and the style in which it is shot. I've seen that this in a divisive issue and I can see why.To put it plainly: the movie is slow. Really slow. In a different movie with a different director the same story could have probably been told in an hour instead of two hours. For an audience used to the quick pace of modern cinema this can be a problem, but I found it wonderfully refreshing. Because the movie takes its time telling the story and building the characters, the feeling I got while watching it was that of calm and quiet. It's all the more interesting seeing that similar stories of forbidden love and faith versus sexuality are often told in a very dramatic way. In Disobedience no one shouts or even talks about their feelings and yet these feelings are still perfectly clear. This shows that with good actors, there is no need to state certain things overtly.Which leads me to acting. I really liked every single performance in the movie. Rachel Weisz is perfect as an outsider in a community that was once her own and a freethinker ready to fight for her love and freedom. Rachel McAdams is brilliant as a wife trying to both love her husband and follow the laws of her religion, and be herself and love a woman. But my favorite performance in the movie is Alessandro Nivola as a deeply hurt husband of a woman who may not really love him. All the characters are fully believable and psychologically complex, and each performance is moving in its own way.The music and the cinematography fit the story perfectly. They underline the calm feeling and add a touch of melancholy to what is quite a sad story. The coloring is quite subdued, which is perfect, as anything bright would go against the spirit of the movie.Lastly, I have to add that the movie is also a fascinating picture of the Jewish culture. I know very little about Judaism or Jewish traditions, so the opportunity to see what is looks like "from the inside" is really interesting, even if there are some aspects I don't fully understand.All in all, the movie is a very solid piece of cinema. It tells a complex story with using quite a minimalist technique and in my opinion the effect is very good. I would recommend it to anyone who isn't scared of a slow pace and having to read the emotions of the characters instead being told about them.

Thank you Sebastian for making this film! Thank you for taking time to properly cast the 2 main ingredients to this masterpiece! Both Rachel's are flawless and are very moving in each of their roles.You can appreciate the sensitivity of the Jewish Orthodox community and their unwavering adherence to their beliefs and traditions! Although they may be staunch on their views, one can appreciate the way they live their lives, even if you don't agree with them at all.The love story is what captivated me. These two Rachel's are completely helpless in their fight to stay away from each other and their true love for one another. You can feel the love tension immediately when they are around one another.Coming from an extremely strict Pentecostal background and being gay, this film speaks worlds to me. This is very similar to when my wife and I first got together and had to hide our love for years from our family, mine especially. This is a must see, must own, and must talk about film.

This has very good reviews so i watched it. Normally I don't like to say anymore than watch it and enjoy the film but in this case I'm just going to say if there is nothing else on the tele and you don't fancy watching anything you've recorded or downloaded then it's watchable as a last resort.

I didn't had the chance to watch the academy award winning 'A Fantastic Woman', directed also by Lelio, and given that, when I saw this film was going to came out at theaters, I didn't wanted to miss the opportunity to see it at the cinema.And now that I did it, I must say that this is a quite good movie. The acting is really powerful, and the dialogues are deep and sometimes a bit funny. And the film also reflects very well the jewish society, their customs, traditions, and how something so pure like true love can be condemned by all of them.Altough I honestly expected it to be more devastating that what it is, it's worth watching and is interesting to see both actresses in a completely different facet.Thanks!