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GWR wrote on 11/22/2010:

If you are looking for a "gay themed" film that is "warm and fuzzy", where the misunderstood and rejected are eventually accepted and kind of understood with the film coming to a loving happy conclusion (boy finds and loves boy living happily ever after) FORGET this film of "Eyes wide Open" because in actuality it's a very sad film telling a very sad tale of misunderstood love indeed.

This superb, wonderfully directed and acted film raises the question of what does one do when merely falling in love goes against a person's beliefs, upbringing, family and friends etc. This film tells the tale of Aaron who is living as an ultra-orthodox Jew in Jerusalem with his wife and family seemingly on the outside to be happy. Enter into his rather "closed" world Erzi a handsome young man seeking a job which Aaron gives him. Against all that is important in Aaron's life the two men fall in love and as Aaron states, he becomes alive. Of course, there are many obstacles preventing them from being happy together. The major obstacle is the community which is very "up in arms" that Aaron, their butcher and pillar in their community is spending so much time with Erzi who is a man "with a past". None of this seems to bother Aaron who seems to think that he can handle it all. Erzi knows better.

In conclusion, all that I can say is that this film will stick to me for a very long time because it is a movie that I found to be very haunting.

I must add that the mood of this film is captured beautifully by its photography and the way it is filmed. The film is set almost entirely in one neighborhood that is located in a rather bleak looking area of Jerusalem that is void of any color only reflecting tones of grey. There are only a few moments on screen that show any color--when Aaron and Erzi get out of the neighborhood to a stream otherwise, everything including the inhabitants of this shown neighborhood look grey.

just a reviewer wrote on 10/07/2010:

.....Passion.........then carried along through the mores and strictures of a religious sect foreign to most of us, until we reach a Devastating Ending. The devastating (only word that fits) sense of loss and despair breathed by Shakespeare into a centuries earlier "Romeo & Juliet" is in no way greater than the sense of loss and despair created by the religious, non-accepting fervor we see befall the two "Romeos" of this film. It is enough to make any understanding viewer weep.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

As an aside, if you're considering watching a movie like this, then you likely are of a "certain persuasion." That being the case(?), please play a little simulation with me.....a little game of suppose or what if. OK, then. Consider yourself and someone you've known, perhaps a longtime friend, or fellow worker.....and.....Suddenly, one day you begin sensing a difference in your thoughts about him---maybe even feeling something similar occurring on his part.....or possibly this is all happening with a member of your club.....or your knockabout sports team----you're on a hike, swimming together in the pool of a stream, sharing a tent.......OR, as in the case of this film's story, you find yourselves in a 2-person workplace, alone and away from the eyes and ears of others, just trying to get the job done. AND, in helping each other move equipment and work supplies around, you notice your fingers touching in handing items one to the other.....there is a brushing of arms as you pass. THEN comes a stillness and closeness in the space you're occupying with this other person.....and those sensations begin magnifying, pushing you into a mentally agitated state.....your eyes sweep around, but always return to the other person.....you nervously pace a bit.....all these things occurring as you feel your senses jumping into overdrive. Even more, there's a thrumming within your body which is growing.....growing; your skin nerve-ends begin experiencing, like, tiny electrical waves. Uncontrollably, your eyes are drawn as by magnets to those of the other person.....you cannot look away.....and it seems neither can he. It is now that you find yourself moving toward the one who has become the center of everything happening to you. At last, in this very instant, the two of you are reaching out with your hands, eyes locked.....finally, they touch........And then it happens.

As for some specifics on this movie, at its heartrending core are a main and a secondary lead whose performances could hardly be bettered. They wonderfully play two men for whom the briefest and smallest of smiles seems the norm for expressing some bit of happiness in their closed-in existence. Yet there are rare in-public times (but only when they are together) when we witness instances of laughing camaraderie, which seem to lighten their societally controlled lives. And, yes, there are times we cry for them as we realize their moments of "bliss" in coupling are likely to be short-lived.

A couple of things to specifically watch for:

-- The most heart-stopping moment in the film comes as our main lead is being pummeled, shouted at and questioned by his own religious leader over what's seen as his "unacceptable relationship and activity" with another. All of a sudden Aaron surges back, blurting out: "I WAS DEAD......AND NOW I'M ALIVE!"

-- A group bullying scene, as the film's last 10 minutes begin, will break your heart. To this viewer, it not only "symbolizes" the beginning of the end (in the very worst sense), but actually "is" the beginning of the end. Watching the eyes and body positions assumed by our leads in these filmed moments will tear you apart----for the realization hits us that a tearing apart is precisely what is happening.

There is only one DVD Special Feature to speak of---a Writer / Director Interview (no during-the-film commentary). Consisting of a series of questions asked, they include: director's background (non-gay and non-religious individual), to include his filmmaking history / the philosophy and thinking behind this film / effect of low budget on sticking to script / political and national implications of the film within the Nation of Israel. Nothing is provided concerning interrelationship of the two male leads during filming----something that would have been of interest to, at least, this viewer.

****

Amos Lassen wrote on 08/17/2010:

“Eyes Wide Open”

Worth the Wait-- A Brilliant Film

Amos Lassen


I first heard about “Eyes Wide Open” about a year ago and I have spent a year trying to get a copy. I finally got one thanks to Kelly Hargraves of First Run Films who is releasing the DVD later this year. The film right now, after playing at various festivals around the world, is opening the prestigious Jewish Film Festival in New York City. Israeli filmmaker Haim Tabakman gives us a love story between two religious Jews and as most of us are well aware this is taboo. Religious Jews do not consider homosexuality a sin—for them, it does not exist.
What Tabakman wants to do with this film is to break the silence on this and thereby make the Orthodox Jewish world become involved in the evolution. Using film to do this is to show that this kind of love does indeed exist. Looking at other films that deal with the Orthodox world, we have seen both the pluses and minuses of living in a closed religious community. “Eyes Wide Open” takes us one step farther.
The film is dark and disturbing. Aaron Freidman (Zohar Strauss) is the father of four who takes over the family kosher butcher shop in Jerusalem after the death of his father. His world is turned on its head when a young Yeshiva student, Ezri (Ran Danker) arrives at the shop. The two men begin to spend time together and Aaron faces difficulties from his Orthodox community. Rabbi Vaisben (Tzahi Grad) confronts him and Aaron tells him that he felt as if he were dead before meeting Ezri. What was once social control of his community becomes violent and ugly and Ezri is forced to leave.
The film is driven by its characters and comes to us in the cinema verite style. Religion and sexuality collide and we see the question of the meaning of restraint and further wonder if we are really being honest and true to God if we destroy ourselves in the process. The theme is controversial and the treatment of that theme which could have been controversial is actually quite tame.
We learn that Ezri had been abandoned by his previous partner and he tempts Aaron into going to the mikveh (a tradition among Orthodox Jews—it calls for immersion in a freshwater pool). Instead of the ritual cleansing that is to come about because of this, Ezri corrupts Aaron who is already not at peace and a fire is lit in him that he cannot put out. Aaron makes no attempt to hide their affair and what follows is inevitable. Aaron is told to get ride of Ezri and he is forced to take on abuse from the community. Aaron does not comply nor respond.
If there is a fault with the film I would say that it is that Tabakman does tackle head-on the moral, social and religious issues that come about because of the homosexual relationship—instead he focuses on the personal drama. The two characters come together because of lust—we do not see any evidence of love nor do we see that they are bothered about the collision between their faith and their actions. We do see Aaron’s conscience pangs about his wife and family but Ezri seems to have no internal conflicts. Rivka, Aaron’s stoic wife is no match for Ezri with his passion and hedonism.
Tabakman’s direction is nuanced and this makes the repressed desires of the men palpable early in the film. When we see them sing about the joy of the Torah we see that their joy is not just spiritual. The art direction is gritty and realistic and the enclosed world of the characters is emphasized. It is set during a wet and dark Jerusalem winter and the rain and the darkness are metaphors for the ritual cleansing and the pressure to conform in the Orthodox community. The actors are strong and the message that comes across is powerful as well.
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