The Wedding Plan

Fill the Void, the first film from writer/director Rama Burshtein, told of a Hasidic Jewish woman pressured into an arranged marriage with an older widower. In her Hebrew- language followup the plot is turned upside down; the protagonist is dumped by her fiancé less than a month before the wedding, and all she wants is to find a replacement. It’s as if Michael Bay had followed Transformers with — well, with this movie.

The Wedding Plan was first released as Through the Wall, a karate metaphor that takes some explaining by the groom-less Michal (Noa Koler). A better title might have been How to Find a Man by Hannukah.

She goes about it haphazardly. She calls a couple of matchmakers, and suffers through some awkward dates, like the guy who won’t meet her eye, or the deaf guy whose sign- language interpreter seems to be hitting on her. Part of the problem seems to be that anyone willing to propose without delay is probably crazy; Michal doesn’t do crazy.

Non- Hasidic audiences may find a few of the references sail over their heads. When Michal leaves her native Israel for a brief pilgrimage to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, I had to go on a fact- finding mission of my own. Fortunately, Wikipedia provides. And although she meets a sexy singer there (Oz Zehavi), his quick proposal freaks her out. Clearly, a screenwriting miracle is required if this wedding is going to happen.

The Wedding Plan is an imperfect story. It’s not even a full-on rom-com, being rather heavy on the drama . But in the rarefied realm of Hasidic romance, it must surely place near the top. ½