Eyes Wide Open

WE'RE BACK! After a bit of a hiatis, we're back and better than ever. We'll start this new season of the QueerFilmBlog off with a new film for me. Everyone knows of my love for romantic dramas. There's nothing more satisfying than seeing a couple battle the world to be together. And, while we all know that this isn't going to end well, we secretly hope that somehow it will. That's why Romeo and Juliet works time and time again. We hope that she wakes before he drinks the poison. We're somehow surprised when that doesn't happen.

From the beginning of Merav Doster's Eyes Wide Open, directed by Haim Tabakman, the audience is well aware that this beginning relationship is not going to work well. The two men have literary the entire community against them. Set in Jerusalem in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood, the film tells the story of butcher Aaron Fleischman (Zohar Shtrauss), who takes in a younger apprentice, Ezri (Ran Danker). Ezri follows a previous lover to Jerusalem, but when that fails to start, he finds himself out on the streets. With Aaron's help, Ezri finds a home and a job in the shop.

From the beginning of the film the heat between the two men is papable. Writer Merav Doster smartly intertwines Orthodox Jewish customs into the telling of this story. There is one beautifully written scene where Aaron says to Ezri, "Restrain yourself. We have an opportunity to rise, to overcome, to fulfill our destiny in this world". Besides being a beautiful line, it shows the direction that the film will take. Aaron is caught in a battle between his religion and his lover.

I'm hard pressed to discuss this film without mentioning Brokeback Mountain. I wouldn't dare say that this is a copycat film. As I mentioned earlier, this plot structure--very much Romeo and Juliet--has been told over and over again. The closest connection between the two films would be the use of sound. Brokeback Mountain had one of the most intricate soundscapes of any film that year. Not used to heighten already tense moments, the country twang was used to draw the audiences attention to time passing and subtle details. Likewise, Eyes Wide Open does a wonderful job of capturing the mood of the community through the sound.

The film hinges on the idea of reawakening--you see this through the two baptisms and Aaron says at one moment, "I'm alive". Ezri works as the catalyst for major change. Because the community, however, rejects this change, the film must end in somewhat ambiguous the way it does.

10 Points for A Queer Lead Character
09 Points for Acting
07 Points for Screenplay
07 Points for Cinematography
08 Points for Overall Impression
09 Points for Soundtrack
07 Points for Editing
07 Points for Creativity and Originality 
07 Points for Direction 
08 Points for Judge's Discretion  

79 Points

Post by Travis Ballenger