Disobedience

Name: Disobedience
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: April 27, 2018
Duration: 114 min
Rating: 74
Cast: Adam Lazarus, Alessandro Nivola, Alexis Zegerman, Allan Corduner, Anton Lesser

2018

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 38 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 93 Ratings

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7.3

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7.3	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 93 Ratings

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Disobedience

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Movie Details & Credits

Bleecker Street Media | Release Date: April 27, 2018 | R

Starring: Adam Lazarus, Alessandro Nivola, Alexis Zegerman, Allan Corduner, Anton Lesser, Bernardo Santos, Bernice Stegers, Cara Horgan, David Fleeshman, Dominic Applewhite, Lasco Atkins, Mark Stobbart, Nicholas Woodeson, Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz, Sophia Brown, Steve Furst, Trevor Allan Davies

Summary: From Sebastián Lelio, the director of the Academy Award-winning A Fantastic Woman, Disobedience follows a woman as she returns to the community that shunned her decades earlier for an attraction to a childhood friend. Once back, their passions reignite as they explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality. Written by Lelio and RebeccaFrom Sebastián Lelio, the director of the Academy Award-winning A Fantastic Woman, Disobedience follows a woman as she returns to the community that shunned her decades earlier for an attraction to a childhood friend. Once back, their passions reignite as they explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality. Written by Lelio and Rebecca Lenkiewicz and based on Naomi Alderman’s book, the film stars Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams and Alessandro Nivola.… Expand

Director: Sebastián Lelio

Genre(s): Drama, Romance

Rating: R

Runtime: 114 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Mick LaSalle

May 3, 2018

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

Peter Travers

Apr 26, 2018

A gorgeously acted, written and directed spellbinder. Read full review

The Film Stage Jared Mobarak

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

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky

Apr 25, 2018

Plotting has never been a strong suit for Lelio, who made his name with character studies of unconventional women. Here, he tries his hand at something akin to classicism, and ends up mounting a compelling drama. Curiously, its main shortcoming parallels the human flaw that is its main theme: our yearning to leave often loses out to our inability to let go. Read full review

Michael Phillips

May 3, 2018

Disobedience sometimes wants for rougher edges, and a fuller characterization for Weisz to play. But there’s real satisfaction in watching her, McAdams and Nivola inhabit a fraught and complicated relationship. Read full review

April Wolfe

May 16, 2018

As a whole, the film is directionless, with few individual character-study scenes making it compelling enough. It’s almost as though there are miniature, worthy films within this film, and watching for those can be a thrill. Read full review

David Sims

Apr 27, 2018

Disobedience finishes on an annoyingly vague note, almost as if Lelio and Lenkiewicz had stumbled on a more interesting, expansive narrative in the final act but didn’t quite know how to pursue it. The result is a film that, from beginning to end, feels as hopelessly lost as its characters do. Read full review

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User Reviews

Orions

Jun 29, 2018

Disobedience its a great film, its a realistic and human history so powerful and with great performances by the three main characters.The chemestry between both Rachels its so real. The movie its so diferent from regular movies its uses the face expresions to communicate and transmitsDisobedience its a great film, its a realistic and human history so powerful and with great performances by the three main characters.The 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.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

anfeherle89

Jun 4, 2021

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

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

MarcDoyle

May 12, 2018

What a beautiful film. Yes, it gets a little simplistic toward the third act, but the acting is stellar and carries it.

3 of 3 users found this helpful30

imdoingmypart

Jun 1, 2018

We see films about the evils of religion. We see films that feel like religious propaganda. How often do we see films that just put these elements out at face value? Such is the nature of Disobedience, a small but intriguing study of the clash between religious devotion and personalWe see films about the evils of religion. We see films that feel like religious propaganda. How often do we see films that just put these elements out at face value? Such is the nature of Disobedience, a small but intriguing study of the clash between religious devotion and personal discovery. In the end, we learn that “right” and “wrong” often do not have a place in an adult world.

Disobedience has a simple premise that allows the performances of Weisz, McAdams, and Nivola to soar (though I will argue that Nivola is the shining star here). Three friends grew up in a traditional Jewish community in London, and one of those friends (Ronit, played by Weisz) rebelled and left to live in the United States, far from her religious affiliation. When Ronit’s father dies, she returns to London to pay her respects. Her trip leads us to meet Dovid, the most interesting character in the film, and McAdams’s Esti. The three characters have three different levels of religious devotion: Ronit has rebelled and is Jewish in background only, Dovid is an ambitious rabbi who conforms to all traditional Jewish rules, and Esti is somewhere in the middle. It may seem as if the character setup forces audience members to “side” with whichever character is closest to his or her personal level of faith, but the film has much more in store.

Entertainment is not at the center of Disobedience. Dialogue takes a back seat as the camera and direction focus on facial expressions. Jewish customs are presented without exposition. Characters are sometimes unlikeable and at other times closed off. Most importantly, however, expectations are subverted. In many ways, Disobedience chooses to focus on the beauty of humanity rather than the terrible things that men do, and, while some audience members will leave unsatisfied with such optimism, many of us appreciated a film with real people for a change.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DogeGamer2015

Aug 2, 2021

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

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

JLuis_001

May 23, 2018

Excellent and solid performances by Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams, also with a great participation of Alessandro Nivola.

Weisz continues to maintain her level and her good run since Fernando Meirelles' 360, excluding the failures of Dream House and Oz the Great and Powerful while McAdamsExcellent and solid performances by Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams, also with a great participation of Alessandro Nivola.

Weisz continues to maintain her level and her good run since Fernando Meirelles' 360, excluding the failures of Dream House and Oz the Great and Powerful while McAdams offers her best performance since A Most Wanted Man and perhaps one of the best of her entire career.
While the story never ends up running smoothly, the performances of these two actresses are worth the two hours you'll invest in this film.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

MeritCoba

Feb 3, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. 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.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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