At The Movies

Boaz Yakin controversial new film, `.`A Price Above Rubies," examines a
woman grappling with life choices in Chasidic Brooklyn.

SERENA DONADONI
Special to The Jewish News

Price Above Rubies, the
haunting new film from
writer/director Boaz Yakin,
begins with a young boy,
Yossi, telling his little sister Sonia a
tale about one of their ancestors; it
feels more like a fable than family his-
tory.
The story, about a woman who dis-
appeared into the woods and returned
pregnant, has a moral lesson but is
also imbued with supernatural over-
tones. It ends with his warning: "If
you're not careful, you'll end up like
her."
But little Sonia's only deviation
from what's expected of her is to love
her brother above everyone else, and
Yossi chastises her ("You must love
God above all") before going on the
midnight swim from which he'll never
return.
That feeling of a heightened reality
pervades A Price Above
Rubies, which follows the
adult Sonia (Renee
Zellweger) through her own
spiritual journey into the
woods from which she'll
return so altered that she too
will never again quite fit
into the Chasidic communi-
ty in which she grew up.
At first, Sonia seems to
have achieved the life her
parents wanted for her. She's
married a promising young
scholar, Mendel (Glenn
Fitzgerald), has given birth
to a son and has moved with
them from the small upstate New
York town of Monsey to Brooklyn's
Borough Park.
Mendel is pursuing his studies and
teaching at the yeshiva, while Sonia
has been taken under the wing of
Menders forthright sister, Rachel
(Julianna Margulies). But it's his

A

Serena Donadoni is a Detroit-based

freelance writer.

4/3
1998

100

brother, Sender (Christopher
Eccleston), who serves as Sonia's agent
of change.
Sensing her inchoate dissatisfaction,
which is expressed through sexual rest-
lessness, Sender initiates an affair. He
also exposes Sonia to the world out-
side the close-knit Chasidic communi-
ty: Recognizing her talent for gemolo-
gy — learned from her jeweler father
— he sets her up in his own private
diamond-dealing basement jewelry
business.
From this job, Sonia meets Puerto
Rican sculptor/jeweler Ramon (Allen
Payne), whose work she fiercely cham-
pions, but whose presence in her life
signals drastic change.
Throughout A Price Above Rubies,
Sonia encounters the still-young Yossi
and a beggar woman (Kathleen
Chalfant). Yakin deftly blends these
fantastic elements into the storyline so
the whole film "feels slightly fabulis-
tic."
"I've always been influenced by lit-

a rebellion against Chasidism nor does
he take her personal unhappiness as a
condemnation of the Chasidim.
"To me, [the film] is about unre-
quited love," Yakin explained, "about a
girl who has a kind of perfect roman-
tic love very early on in her life and it's
taken away from her and she's never
given it back. She's lacking in it, so it
colors everything in her life.

Filmmaker Boaz Yakin: A film about
"unrequited love."

Julianna Margulies, left, of "ER" plays
Rachel, a Chasidic woman who is `!sexu-
al and strong and comfortable with that
part of her life." Renee Zellweger, at
right, plays Sonia.

erature and by films that weren't 100
percent realistic," said Yakin, promot-
ing his film during an interview in Los
Angeles.
"I feel that a 'realistic' portrayal of
things — a kind of cinema verite or
documentary thing — can be effective
in showing an environment or an
event, but it's really limited in terms of
showing the emotional life of people."
Yakin doesn't view Sonia's actions as

"There are scenes at the beginning
of the film that another parent, anoth-
er character, would enjoy: giving birth,
the bris, moving into a new neighbor-
hood. But even when she's giving
birth, she's essentially crying for her
lost brother."
"I think that she is searching for
personal happiness," Renee Zellweger
said about Sonia. "The Chasidic cul-
ture is a backdrop. You have to have a

patriarchal society, a society where
women are considered to have less
opportunities than other cultures, to
tell a story of a woman who is pres-
sured in that way. It's a story about
this young woman who is not satisfied
with the life that's she's presented
with."
"I think there's something wonder- c1)=="
fill about community," added Yakin.
"There's something strong and good
about it, but it's also really hard on the
people who have individualistic
needs."
Yakin saw his casting choices as
essential to conveying the emotional
crux of the story. He picked actors
because of certain attributes they pos-
sessed rather than their ethnic or reli-
gious background.
British actor Christopher Eccleston
(Jude, Let Him Have It) was chosen for
the pivotal role of Sender because he
possessed an inherent force and
strength, qualities Yakin had almost
given up finding in an actor his age.
Renee Zellweger was cast after Yakin
saw her wonderful performance (pre-
Jerry Maguire) in The Whole Wide
World.
"I was really taken with her ability
to feel without seeming to act," he said,
reflecting on Zellweger's facility for let-
ting her emotions play out very close to
the surface. When Sonia describes the
"fire" inside her to the rebbe and rebb-
itzen, and how it's turned "too hot,"
her emotional intensity and clarity
make the heat almost palpable.
Detroit-born Kim Hunter (an
Oscar winner for A Streetcar Named
Desire) brought "a regal quality" to the
rebbitzen, and Julianna Margulies'
("ER") presence made Rachel even
more powerful, says Yakin. "The idea
of a woman who was sexual and
strong and comfortable with that part
of her life presented a good counter- 0
point to Sonia."
Surprisingly, the reactions of
Julianna Margulies and Renee
Zellweger toward the prospect of a
Chasidic life were the direct opposite
of the characters they portrayed.

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