A Stranger Among Us | | Cast : | Melanie Griffith | | Director : | Sidney Lumet | | Studio : | Buena Vista Home Vid | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | July 17, 1992 | | DVD Released Date : | June 03, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 02, 2005 | | Summary | God counts the tears of women | Content
 | A person who deals with diamonds is missing. Detective Emily Eden (Melanie Griffith) is assigned to find him and missing diamonds. Not long into the story the missing person is found (DEAD). The victim is a member of a closed trusting society. This leads the detective to draw the conclusion that it had to be the unthinkable; "an inside job" by someone(s) trusted. The solution is to go undercover and wait for an opportunity to identify the perpetrator(s).
The detective story is the veneer of the movie however it is integral enough to include Emily's background friends and past environment. This fleshes out Emily's character and the choices she made in life.
The choice of Melanie Griffith as someone hardboiled and expounding the things she has scene is stretching it a bit. Also as with some one playing a kids role she acts more like a three year old. And occasionally the terrible two's. However by the end of the film we forget this and except the character. Most of the other actors fit their characters well. One problem I had was watching Leah (Mia Sara), I kept thinking of her in "Farris Bueller's Day Off" (1986)
The true or socially redeeming part of the story is the interaction and reaction of the people as they grow from knowing each other. We get a little cultural exchange and few universal incites, including the concept of one's soul mate which is found again in many philosophies.
Is the mystery solved?
Has Emily and/or others learned from the experience?
God counts the tears of women.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 23, 2005 | | Summary | Casting boo boo by the name of Melanie Griffith | Content
| This is an interesting film, especially for a cop flick, because it is more character-based than stereotypical Hollywood (car chases, gratuitous violence and shooting, big muscles, etc). And the role of Emily is a perfect multidimensional character-centered role. Not something you saw a lot of in mainstream Hollywood flicks prior to about the mid-1990's. However, Melanie Griffith is not appropriate for such a role. A fluffy comedic actor like Griffith only makes such a role appear melodramatic and overbearing. It's like using a meat cleaver to perform intricate brain surgery. This is not to say that Griffith is a bad actor (at least not for fluffy comedy), or that she couldn't master the subtlies of this type of acting some day; after all, look what Sylvester Stallone did in Cop Land (and if he can do it, anyone can do it). But she obviously failed in her role in this film.
The rest of the characters are also compellingly multidimensional, except, oddly enough, for who turns out to be the murderer.
I liked the film's positive multicultural flavor; what I also liked about the film was that it was made around the time that Hollywood started tayloring film's endings based on preferences of test audiences (around 1992), but this film's ending was obviously spared such a fate. The ending is cool, because it is realistic and shows Ariel's integrity--which I think was a graceful way to end things. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 29, 2005 | | Summary | OY VEY! | Content
| Director Sidney Lumet is no hack - his resume includes classics such as "The Pawnbroker," "Serpico," "Dog Day Afternoon," and "Network." But every artist is entitled to the occasional misstep, and at least "A Stranger Among Us" is more an interesting failure than the outright disaster "The Wiz" was.
Lumet is dealing with a number of problems here, first and foremost among them a meandering script that can't quite decide what its main storyline should be. Ostensibly a crime drama centering on the murder of a merchant in Manhattan's diamond district (the stretch of 47th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues), it persists in wandering off in two other directions - Brooklyn's Hassidim community and its age-old traditions, and the threat of forbidden love between one of its members and the detective assigned to the case. While the scenes involving the religious rituals and customs add nothing to the plot, they at least are interesting and informative about a culture foreign to most viewers. Less compelling are those moments involving Ariel and Emily of the NYPD, since their interest in each other strains credulity, not only because their backgrounds make it unlikely, but due to the lack of any chemistry between Eric Thal and Melanie Griffith.
Griffith is Lumet's other major problem here. No doubt she was cast because at the time she was still Hollywood's flavor-of-the-month, but we are asked to suspend disbelief and accept her not only as a New York police officer, but as one who would be selected to go undercover and infiltrate the Jewish community and live with them as one of their own. Dying her blonde locks brown does nothing to make Griffith less the "shiksa" (Gentile woman) than she obviously is, and it's unlikely anyone in Crown Heights would have mistaken her for anything but. Yet - oddly enough - although plainly she's out of her element, the fish-out-of-water aspects of the story just don't work.
By the time whodunit is revealed, you may not care who was responsible for the nearly-forgotten crime lost in a jumble of sub-plots - but give it a moment or two of thought and you'll wonder how the victim's body could have been hidden where it was by the person implausibly identified as the killer. It's a plot twist that just isn't quite - forgive the pun - kosher.
The actors cast as the elder Jews and the atmosphere in which they live and worship add an air of authenticity that's missing from any of the scenes involving police procedures. Lee Richardson is impressive as the rebbe who, despite his misgivings, must welcome the street-smart female cop into his home. John Pankow, Mia Sara, and Jamey Sheridan do well in their small supporting roles, and James Gandolfini makes an appearance as a thug in a foreshadowing of his career as Tony Soprano, but Eric Thal is saddled with the almost impossible task of making us believe he would forsake his strong religious beliefs and dedication to Kabbalah for the hard-talking, gun-toting Griffith.
Despite its many flaws, "A Stranger Among Us" is one of those films that makes a long flight, rainy day, or dateless Friday night easier to endure. As a Lumet credit, it's a far cry from "Serpico," but a hell of a lot better than "The Wiz." |
| Rating | | | Date | November 17, 2004 | | Summary | Strangers!!!!!! | Content
| My sister gave me this movie for my birthday. I liked it at first, maybe because I didnt understood the meaning of the movie, maybe I didnt understood the message. But after watching the movie again, I learn many things and Melanie Griffth was good, she could have been better, because I have seen her in other movies and she is an Inteligent Actress. And Eric Thal, I have never seen such an interesting actor. His emotions regarding His Besherta, was something I kept asking my self. What is that?, then Melanie (Emily) --> says at the end that she is waiting for her Beshert. WOW, I finaly understood that after all the crazy things she had done in her life, and in the crazy family she grew up in to, she finaly was not going to settle for less, she now wanted Her Beshert, Her Soulmate...!!! If you pass thru the movie, and understand the Message, then you will like it, maybe Love it. :-) |
| Rating | | | Date | September 17, 2004 | | Summary | "What's New & Exciting?" | Content
| Melanie Griffith is an underrated actress. She shows emotions well with her eyes & facial expressions. I give her credit for attempting a different kind of role in 1992. I imagine this was considered "career growth" in her opinion, knowing she could not play the ingenue, hooker, bimbo, Goth-girl forever. So I don't see her miscast as a cop at that point in her career. This film tries to be many things at once & has some loose ends. Initially, one would think this is a love story, but it really isn't. Emily (Griffith) & Ariel (Eric Thal) look at each other alot but there aren't many sparks flying. As a police drama it falls short there too, because we don't see Emily doing much investigating, just living among the Hasidic Jews & getting a feel & appreciation for their lifestyle. The depiction of the Hasidic Jews, shot in sepia tones, may be inaccurate at times but I feel it's the film's strongest point. The characters also tend to be too stereotyped. Emily's father appears to be an Irish alcoholic, the gangsters (James Gandolfini & Chris Latta) are Italian. Det. Levine (John Pankow)is an anti-semitic Jew calling the Hasidic Jews "an embarrassment" while showing ignorance of their customs, & the rebbe sounds like he's doing an impersonation of Jackie Mason. I also think the scene when Emily first arrives in their neighborhood while "Fiddler On The Roof" type music plays on the soundtrack is a bit over-the-top. She also seems in awe of the area which is farfetched since she's a New York cop who must have driven through it more than once. As for the loose ends, we never find out who helped the killer & assisted her to place the body where it was found, & was Emily really at the wedding or just "in spirit"? Also, when Emily realizes who the killer really is, it just seemed like an afterthought to the love story that never materialized. I still recommend this movie because it has Melanie Griffth & shows a culture that is not often depicted in films. |
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