WEDDING PLAN LIFTS VEIL ON WORLD OF HASIDIC ROMANCE
But imperfect story of bride’s frantic hunt for a man trips up on many levels
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 Kooler).
A better title might have been How to Find a Man by Hannukah, since that’s essentially the task Michal sets herself.
She goes about it rather haphazardly, it must be said.
She calls a couple of matchmakers, and suffers through some awkward dates, like the guy who won’t meet her eye and 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; and 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 factfinding mission of my own.
Fortunately, Wikipedia provides.
And although she meets a sexy singer (Oz Zehavi) there, 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 romcom, being rather heavy on the drama, although there are a startling number of times when characters break into song and dance. But in the relatively rarefied realm of Hasidic romance, it must surely place near the top.