Cheap A Stranger Among Us (DVD) (Melanie Griffith) (Sidney Lumet) Price

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Customer Reviews of A Stranger Among Us

Ignore the plot, watch for the details
Ok, so I feel a little silly giving this movie four stars. Melanie Griffith portraying a hardened New York detective? Uh, no. The romance? Silly. The killer's identity? Not exactly a shocker. And yet I really enjoyed this movie because someone did their research. This is really a sensitive, non-prejudiced introduction to the world of Hasidim, a small, ultra-Orthodox segment of the Jewish population.

The story revolves around a murder in the Hasidic community of jewelers in New York. Emily Eden (Griffith) is dispatched to investigate and ends up going undercover within the community. The film has wonderful details about Hasidic life and customs, the role of the Rebbe, the antagonism from the mainstream Jewish community, and addresses the unfortunate sheet rumor which I won't go into here. As I said, Griffith's miscasting makes Angie Dickinson's work on Police Woman appear the height of feminist role models. Mia Sara fares better as the daughter of the Rebbe (the leader and epicenter of Hasidic communities.) Also, fine work from Eric Thal as the Rebbe's son who is destined to become the next leader of the Hasidim. This film is both a guilty pleasure and a surprisingly informative introduction to a fascinating community. Come for the dreck, stay for the halachah.

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Melanie at her most hilarious
I have a love/laugh relationship with Melanie Griffith. Sometimes I love her films as they are intended, even if the critics don't, and other times, the films are so stupid they're hysterical. This falls into the latter category. She's this brash, foul-mouthed, trampy, tough-as-nails NYC detective who investigates a murder in the Hasidic jewish diamond district. Naturally, as we see later, she also has a heart of gold. Melanie, as the hard boiled and tough as nails cop, ends up dying her dried-out bleach blonde locks brown and goes "undercover" as a returing Hasidic jewish woman in the community to get to the bottom of the murder, as she thinks it's an "inside job." Right! To believe this premise, she'd have to have the acting ability of Meryl Streep, or there would have to be a sly reference in the film that these were brain damaged, under 80 I.Q. Hasidic jews. Nothing like this is mentioned in the film, and Griffith is no Streep. Then there's this totally silly romance subplot as the girl on the prowl, take no prisoners, use 'em and lose 'em Melanie falls for a quiet, intellectual, sensitive, much younger (they downplay that in the movie), gorgeous Hasidic jewish guy whose house she is sharing while "undercover." Luckily for him, and the audience, the romance goes nowhere, and crass, hard as nails Melanie, ends up respecting his decision that he ought to marry within his faith, and remain pure up until that point. And that other reviewer is right, Melanie, after all the hardwork to go "undercover," does virtually no investigating once a part of their world. The murder solves itself. If NYC detectives were anything like this character, anarchy would rule in NYC.

On a most significant note, even though she's hard boiled and tough as nails, she says "okey dokey" in her high little Melanie voice about 15 times in this movie. I have known both devout Jews and hard boiled NYC police. Neither group uses the term "okey dokey" to my knowledge. Where did she come up with this one? I never see it in any of her other movies. Did someone play a cruel joke on her during filming and tell her "okey dokey" is an authentic Jewish term or something and her adding it to the script would help her "transformation"? I guess we'll never know, because when she was on Actor's Studio, this wasn't a movie they discussed (shocker).

Needless to say, I watch this movie whenever I can. It's pretty terrible if you're looking for some kind of action/thriller as the film is billed. If you can appreciate Melanie Griffith's body of work as I can, this is one of her top comedies.

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Lame
Really, the only thing I enjoyed about Stanger Among Us was the slight study it did of Hasidism. So much of the plot was unreal and contrived that its pretty lame. Melanie Griffith turns in a poor job as the detective who falls for Ariel the main Hasid character. No Hasid would ever read to her out of the Kabala what the movie had him read to her in the back yard,it just would not happen, he would turned the page from that selection and chose something else. Can't really recommend this one.It has its good points, but the bad one's so detract from its worth.