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A Major Disappointment

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

With everything going on after the SCOTUS ruling same-sex marriage as legal across the US, I went in search of a good LGBTQ+ movie that I hadn't seen before. When I came across 'Eyes Wide Open', I knew I had to watch it, both because it is an LGBT film and it involves Judaism, of which I am in the process of converting to (albeit a much more liberal branch). This film was full of nuance and poignancy. I know some thought it was too quiet, but I thought that it's use of body language over spoken words to convey the emotions of the characters was powerful, so much so that I opted to watch without subtitles on my second viewing.Maybe this is just my interpretation, but I never got the sense that Aaron and Ezri were in love with one another. Because Aaron was bored with his cookie-cutter life and Ezri was left jilted by his ex person, they both needed solace and escape. They found that in each other as kindred spirits of a sort. They clearly cared for each other, but was it love? I never got that impression. The penultimate scene in this film is, without a doubt, the first kiss shared by Aaron and Ezri. What struck me the most about it was the fact that Aaron seemed so on edge at the beginning of the scene, nervously pacing and fidgeting with his tzitzit. At first I wasn't sure what to make of that, but on my second viewing, it occurred to me: At some point between their meeting on the rooftop and that moment in the cooler, Aaron had made the decision to act on his feelings for Ezri. When that moment came, he was equal parts petrified and ecstatic. By the time these two men kissed, the tension between them exploded and the rest of the scene is so intense with emotion and relief that I found myself holding my breath. That was some damned fine acting.In the end, what I took away from this wonderful and saddening film was that true happiness comes at a major cost, and we must decide whether it's worth the ultimate price. Aaron didn't think so, especially since he had a family who depended on him, whereas Ezri had nobody. However, his relationship with Ezri not only brought him closer to his loving wife in the end, but I believe it also brought him closer with his true self. A+ movie. Would recommend.

A great, very well acted, writed and filmed movie. A emotional trip that even brings us a reflection: the complexity of being gay in the very different cultures all over the world and the complexity of being who you really want to be. No doubt, a beautiful joy of the LGBT cinema. The film has a very polished cadence, and a very polished end too. Two points that make it shine. Actors do well. Dominate their characters in a realistic, touching and very natural way. The acting is another great achievement of this production. And since this is a drama, action causes the script to succeed. It is difficult to say whether a wider audience can enjoy this movie (which is already addressed to the gay community); should be, because the emotions it reflects are universal and represent social repression, which in many countries is still a common denominator.

While I am not involved in Hollywood film production, I am involved in independent film production in Texas. I found the topic very interesting and powerful, though I did find it difficult to sit through the film. More than half the film past before I began to feel a dramatic development in the action of the film. There were subplots like the other unacceptable relationship which were a big stretch to understand how it was connected to the film. Many scenes had slow pan shots and took too long and left me waiting for what is next. And as a composer myself, I was surprised by the little original music used in the film - especially since there were so many scenes with little to no dialog. A few spots of seemingly pure synthesized music that had no dramatic sound or direction to it. It is not until the end titles we even get to hear a piano. Perhaps directors in Israel (or at least this one) do not fully understand the benefits of music and sound effects. I can understand at least the total lack of Israeli commercial music as perhaps a shoestring budget but there are so many starving artists in Israel (I have a cousin who writes and performs in Israel) who would do it for just credit.All in all, as a film watching experience, this may be what viewers in Israel expect, but here, at least in Texas, this is the sort of film I would perhaps expect from a new Indie filmmaker - not a full fledged theatrical release.

Such cruelty is unimaginable, but so close to us. We are in a Jewish community in Jerusalem, one of these communities that live by the Torah a life totally locked up in that logic. A man gets married, has children, works all his life, goes to the synagogue every single time it is necessary, celebrates Sabbath, dresses the proper way, speaks proper language, kisses the jamb of the door when he is coming in or going out of a house, apartment or store. That's a very routine-like life that does not accept anything that goes against this routine, these rules, this pre-formatted life. If the man is a butcher his whole life and his family's depend on the community that must be convinced that he is pure, he is no sinner. And sin is all-pervading in this community. The result is sad in many ways: it is absolute solitude right in the midst and the heart of a human community, a solitude that kills the heart and the soul because the only thing that this man may desire is forbidden, and that is love, love from an equal, love from a man, love from another human being made in the image of God. That forbidden love is divine because it brings together two direct representatives of God, sons of God, Adam and Adam, full equality, the supreme desire of love, to love your equal, to love yourself in the other and let the other love himself in you. But that kind of love is banned by the Torah (Leviticus 18:22, "You must not lie with a man as with a woman. This is a hateful thing." Leviticus 20:13, "The man who lies with a man in the same way as with a woman: they have done a hateful thing together; they must die, their blood shall be on their own heads.") But at the same time the butcher Aaron who accepts Ezri under his roof is then in a serious dilemma when the people around him start being menacing and aggressive because in Genesis 19:5-8 it is said: "They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof." And this means Aaron has to protect Ezri. But nothing is that simple and Ezri who has no one except Aaron will leave to enable Aaron to live in peace. But Aaron will not be able to live in that peace. The end is sad, very sad. This film is about that kind of bigotry against gay people, or even nothing but gay desire in the name of a law that is in pure contradiction with the famous Lot story that brings God's fire onto Sodom: the people in Sodom did not respect the law of hospitality, and history repeats itself. The people of this community did not respect the law of hospitality either, but God seemingly brought his fire down onto the host and the guest. Sodom upside down in a way, though in perfect order according to the Torah in another way. There could be a third way but it would mean to leave the community, wife, children. But we can wonder if the departing Ezri and the departed Aaron have not done just that. The film is great because it is delicate, slow and entirely introspective to the point of making the story unreal, at least to our eyes that are wide open and can't see no justice in that law of fire. When one was stoned to death in Jerusalem in the old days, he had to be thrown over the wall of the city, he had to dig his own grave in which he was buried up to the shoulders and then the people could stone him to death, at least that's how James, Jesus' eldest brother was executed. Times may have changed but our stoning techniques are maybe less brutal or bloody but they are just as effective.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID