Disobedience (2017) review

Ronit (Rachel Weisz), living in the U.S., returns to the Orthodox Jewish community in the U.K. where she was brought up when she hears about the death of her father, but while there she re-ignites an old relationship she had with another woman, Esti (Rachel McAdams) ... who was forced to marry a Rabbi, Dovid (Alessandro Nivola), and deeply unhappy about it. It has almost no pulse to it until Ronit and Esti start to get 'hot and heavy' ... and that just happens to be the time when the Orthodox community gathers around to gossip and reveal how intolerant they are. The deep feeling of lust and longing that's supposed to be in the two women doesn't come across as natural and more of an actorly exercise - Weisz and McAdams are too studied to appear truly desperate. It ends on a lackluster note - so much for all that - but at least it doesn't resort to turning Dovid into a violent loon. "You have a choice," he says ... technically speaking, you do, and you can live a lie.