Disobedience is a 2018 drama about a woman who returns to her religious community after she was banished for a forbidden romance with another woman.
From director Sebastian Lelio (A Fantastic Woman) comes this all too familiar tale of affairs of the heart. The story follows Ronit Krushka (Rachel Weisz), a woman who returns home after years of being shunned by her highly religious family for having a romantic relationship with another woman. When she comes back she is met with open arms by her best friend Dovid (Alessandro Nivola), who informs her that he has just gotten married. The woman he is now married to is with Estil Kuperman (Rachel McAdams), the same woman that Ronit had the relationship with all those years before. At first they both try to hide their feelings from each other, but that doesn’t last long. Soon, they will eventually ask, should they keep their love a secret or should they stand up to religious traditions and be together?
There have been many movies that featured an affair as the main plot. Usually it involves a jealous third party and at first Dovid would fit that particular role. He isn’t as dangerous as others before him, but he can still cause problems for both women. He is poised to become the next, I’m going to say minister, because I don’t know the correct term for high priest since this is set in a Jewish community. Estil is a respected teacher and if the town got word of the affair, it could kill her career, at least her career in this town. She could still find work anywhere else there was a school. When Dovid does find out about the affair, he refuses to grant his wife a divorce for reasons I won’t spoil. But even if I did reveal the reasons, it doesn’t explain why Estil and Ronit can’t be together.
While watching, I began asking questions like “Why couldn’t Estil still file for divorce even if her husband refused to?” And “Are religious communities outside the law and if so, how can they get away with?” Oh, and can I join? What’s more, does it really matter if both ladies become shunned from their community? es I know that their faith is important, but couldn’t they move away and still practice at a different place of worship? When Dovid does find out, why does he only yell at Estil? Never once did I see him confront Ronit or vice versa.
This was the first English language feature from Sebastian Lelio and he does a good job with getting good performances from actors. I just feel that the story gets resolved a little too fast. Right from the moment the affair is revealed, everything gets wrapped up in about fifteen minutes. I felt that there was a wasted opportunity to flesh out the characters just a little bit more. I wasn’t upset at how it ended, just at how it reached the conclusion.
Disobedience has great visuals and the chemistry between Weiz, McAdams, and Nivola are tremendous. If this was a stage play, I think it would perform better than it does on screen.