Movie Review: Arranged

I stumbled across a rare jewel of a movie and was so touched by the rawness and originality of Arranged that I feel compelled to write a review. This is a movie about two American teachers one Muslim and one Jewish and it follows their journey towards friendship, it's based loosely on the experience of a Jewish woman from Brooklyn. The banal connection between two differing religions is pedestrian and this movie is anything but pedestrian; the theme of Arranged is so much more relevant and interesting than such a cliché.

Rochel , the Jewish Orthodox woman and Nasira the Muslim character are teachers in the same school in Brooklyn and an uncomfortable confrontation with a student in Nasira's class propels the two women to work together to calm a potential conflict. What emerges is a joy to watch on screen as they discover how unspeakably similar they are in their values, feisty spirits and what they hold to be sacred in a world that increasingly defiles and mocks what others consider hallowed.

Both, Rochel and Nasira are in the midst of their families arranging suitors for marriage; a sequence of scenes that portrays one dreadful date after another offers levity and humour while reminding us the lengths humans go to find love, companionship and commitment regardless of religion or ethnicity. When both women invite the other to their families' homes to work on teaching projects, the hostile reactions of Rochels' mother towards Nasira and the harshness of Nasira's father towards to Rochel creates gut wrenching tension. Seeing the juxtaposition of how sweet natured the women are in contrast with their highly traditional and rigid parents is difficult, painful to watch.

A wonderful nugget of what it means to be different in America occurs when Rochel introduces herself to people and they inevitably mangle her name because it's pronounced with a guttural 'ch' sound. Her seething anger, followed by outrage at the audacity of people who insist on calling her 'Rachel', the anglicized version of her real name, is worth the price of admission!

So often we assume that everyone wants to be part of the Britney Generation, a culture of promiscuity, scantily clad bodies and selling women as sex objects and this movie holds a mirror up to this world and one can not help seeing how twisted, empty and ugly it has become.

As Rochel yells at an antagonist in the movie who is judging her religiosity and modesty in dress, 'What is so free about wearing short skirts and sleeping with a bunch of men I don't know!' That is what a freedom cry sounds like to me; it rang in my ears and ricocheted across my mind and settled into my heart.

Rochel and Nasira, what binds these two lovely characters is their commitment to their families, ancient traditions and religion while living in a secular, materialistic and modern world that is too often unkind, intolerant and self-righteous. This movie is a love letter to true freedom of choice, the right of each human being to decide which path is theirs and which is not.

Arranged is a movie that made me feel inspired, joyful and hopeful and which is rare accomplishment in a world of commodity and fear mongering. See this movie.

Contact me at: http://rolaphoenicia.blogspot.com/

Arranged Official Website: http://www.arrangedthemovie.com/index.html

IMDB, Arranged: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848542/