So much more than it might initially appear: Rama Burshtein's THE WEDDING PLAN

When, a month or so back, we caught a trailer for THE WEDDING PLAN at a local movie house, this new film from Rama Burshtein looked for all the word like some silly Israeli sitcom/rom-com in which a bride-to-be is dumped by her man but decides to go ahead with a wedding anyhow -- in hopes of finding a new groom in time for the deadline. Oy! Right? But hold on. Burshtein, a born-in-New-York-City filmmaker (shown below) who works in Israel and who gave us the interesting Fill the Void a few years back, has more on her fervid mind that mere laughs and romance.

Ms Burshtein is interested in everything from the Jewish religion (Orthodox-style) to faith, psychology (she's quite astute in this department), love and limerence. And her heroine, Michal -- beautifully played by newcomer Noa Koler (above and below) with a ripe combo of intelligence, desperation and genuine appeal -- is no typical ditz, even though she does do a number of ditsy things in the course of this funny, surprising, and finally somewhat unsettling film. Burshtein and her leading character question an awful lots of the things that the Jewish orthodox religion would prefer that we take for granted and then shut up about.

Chief among these is -- as usual with any fundamentalist religion -- the male prerogative. But more than merely bashing us menfolk, Burshtein points the finger of guilt just as squarely at the gals and how they react to the idea of marriage and men and being saved and sheltered. Not that this is all so wrong, mind you, but it's more about how this attitude can come to control one's life choices.

What makes the movie most enjoyable and penetrating, however, is the way in which the filmmaker treats all her characters: She lets us see them as they are, and not simply via her heroine's perspective. Consequently, they're richer and more interesting people -- from the unusual matchmaker, a visit to whom begins the movie, to Michal's friends and relatives (above), and especially the prospective "grooms" (a date or two with each that the movie treats us to).

From the initial no-can-do bridegroom (above) to the unusually alert and empathetic fellow Michal meets on her trip to the Ukraine (below), these guys are not the nitwit why-bother "dates" with which so many rom-coms regale us. The movie also makes it clear that this woman's self-image is not all that it might be (note how Michal manages to somehow reject what is being offered to her again and again).

As D-Day approaches and the possibilities seem to lessen, Ms Burshtein would appear to be painting her heroine into a corner from which she can't escape. But not quite. The filmmaker's insistence on addressing faith, religion and a woman's place in all this pays off -- but not at all in the way you will expect.

TrustMovies  could be way off-base here, but it seems to me that the filmmaker is indicting orthodox Jewish religion as offering its women far too little too late, thus forcing them into the kind of servitude (to god, or so the religion says, but funny how it's really to men) that renders them second-class. But how to get out of this?

Burshtein offers more questions than answers. But her questions are intelligent ones, and her movie is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining and smart. Just like her heroine.

From Roadside Attractions and running 110 minutes, The Wedding Plan opened last weekend in New York City and hits a number of other cities this Friday, May 19. Here in South Florida, it will play the Miami area at the AMC Aventura Mall 24, Regal's South Beach 18 and The Classic Gateway in Fort Lauderdale. In Palm Beach County look for it at the Regal Shadowood, Living Room Theaters, Cinemark Palace 20 and Movies of Delray and Movies of Lake Worth the latter on May 26), and the AMC City Place 20. Elsewhere around the country? I'm sure so, but I have not been able to locate a link to the locations in other areas. Good luck, as this movie is worth seeking out.

The blind are leading the blind once again in Ido Fluk's film about faith, THE TICKET

Down the decades we've seen a number of films that track the journey of a person from the world of the sighted into that of the blind (the most recent would probably be the documentary, Notes on Blindness, while one of the best narrative versions would have to be Eskil Vogt's amazing Blind). In THE TICKET, the new movie written and directed by Ido Fluk (shown below), however, we go in exactly the opposite direction, as a blind man suddenly and rather miraculously wakes up one morning with his sight completely intact.

Once the change occurs, the big questions that soon arise are whether or not our "hero" -- played by Dan Stevens, shown above and below, the most ubiquitous actor currently around, with two films opening just this week (the other is Colossal) plus another huge hit already in theaters and a hit TV show currently unspooling) -- will change and grow or simply become even more of the the prick he most definitely seems to already be.

The answer that filmmaker Fluk gives us is "yes" to both, as well as to several other questions raised by this earnest and all-too-obvious film.

These further questions involve why the miracle man's wife (Malin Akerman, below left) chose this guy with whom to make a life. There were other blind folk at the center she visited. Was he simply a "project" for her?  And what about his blind best friend and work mate, played by Oliver Platt (below, right)? Is this guy jealous of our hero's new eyesight, not to mention his wife and son? Yes, and yes again. But so what? All this is not really Mr. Fluk's point. No, his movie is all about faith, and what the lack of it can do, as is apparent from the story/joke told about god, prayer, and a lottery ticket, which is handed to us as the film opens, is repeated again midway and then once again -- just in case we didn't get the point.

You can pray all you want but you can't win the prize if you don't have enough faith to first purchase the ticket. There is undoubtedly a way to make this lesson apply and adhere to a fictional story, but Fluk has not found it. The characterizations of everyone -- hero on down -- are paltry and the movie is glacially paced. The performances are part and parcel with the characterizations: only as good as the enormous lack of detail that the filmmaker provides. This includes those of Kerry Bishé (as the "other woman") and Skylar Gaertner (below, left) as the protagonist's young son. Worse, we have no clue what kind of guy our protag was before he got his sight. In terms of real characterization, this movie comes as close to running on empty as any I've recently seen.

Mr. Stevens is a very committed actor, and he is always as good as the role he is given. This is true here, too, though he's been handed the most embarrassing "breakdown" scene on film since poor Ewen Leslie's in The Daughter. As Stevens cries and moans and writhes and blubbers, you just want to scream, "Cut -- for Christ's sake, Cut!" If this movie is indeed about faith, it is so poorly conceived and executed that, by its end, audiences will find whatever faith they possess sorely tested -- if not knocked for a complete loop.

From Shout! Factory and running a too-long 100 minutes, The Ticket opens this Friday, April 7, in New York City at the Cinema Village and simultaneously On Demand most everywhere else.