Overrated and overhyped

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

In a conservative orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem a young man looking for a job applies at a butcher shop. The butcher hires him and eventually becomes attracted to him and becomes his lover. Traditional Jewish sensibilities condemn this and the end is tragic.Mostly an excellent movie with great views of Israel. The ending I did not care for---gays in movies always end up killing themselves or have a smothering mother who puts her head in an oven etc....These stereo types just will not die. The conservative orthodox communities prejudice was probably also a bit exaggerated for 2012 liberal Israel. After all Israel lets gays serve in the military openly.I wish they would make movies where the gay man or woman outsmarts the system in the denouement. The standard fare where the prejudice wins out are just downers.Even so I highly recommend this movie.RECOMMEND

Einayim Petukhoth - EYES WIDE OPEN – CATCH IT ( B- ) Einayim Petukhoth is my first ever Israeli movie so, I was quite psyched about it. The movie starts off quite strong and I was stunned how strongly the Jew Culture was presented in the entire movie. (To be honest Being a Muslim its kind of made me Guilty). Later on movie got really slow and when Aaron falls for Azri, it was never showed in a lot of words what they actually feel about each other? is it love or just Lust? And why Aaron became so Oblivion that he doesn't care when posters against him were pasted all over the city? Plus he refuses to kick Azri out from his Butcher house too. These things were did put pressure on me as a viewer but somehow till the end I didn't understand what exactly Aaron was thinking? He is the father of four kids for God's Sack. Though the material was controversial but lack of Communication/Feelings between Aaron & Azri was my biggest problem with the movie. So in the end it was just passable for me. Zohar Shtrauss, Ran Danker and Tinkerbell were exceptional in their parts, no two words about that! In my final words watch it for the taboo topic in very strong cultural setting & great performances BUT it's not a master piece.

In chapter 32 of Genesis we learn how Jacob earned the name of Israel. This is the scene, according to the King James version: [...] And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.I want to suggest that the right way to appreciate "Eyes Wide Open"'s story and, especially, its peculiar pitch, is to view it as a modern day version of Jacob's wrestling with - Angel, man, or God, the original language spares us the need to specify between the three.So, why such a viewing? Aaron, an orthodox Jewish butcher, a man that as his name suggests is a mountain of strength, a mountain of a somewhat melancholic strength, decides to re-open his father's shop. We never learn as things progress up to what degree his stance is determined by clauses of mourning his father, and this is a dramatic ambiguity, to call it that, I appreciated. It is something I will return to.Next, enter Ezri a handsome young man who contrasts to Aaron right from the start, in a way that signified, at least for this viewer, the precariousness of the face. Ezri seems at a loss, and Aaron tacitly asks the stranger, guessing on his rootless state. Ezri leaves abruptly, in order to visit another orthodox Jew, arguably a lover that denies him, and, to cut the story short, Aaron takes Ezri as an employee.We then witness readings of the Torah, and Aaron's interpretation that runs counter to the rabbi's exegesis on matters of hardship. We should love the hard part, is the gist of what Aaron says, it is the hard part, the obstacle, that makes love love. This is a good counterpoint to silent long takes, when it is sometimes difficult to scrutinize what happens in the protagonists' heart and mind. But, I add right away, this is sometimes the point: what is for us the admirable adventure of plunging into the other's abysmal gaze or face, is also the limit that makes intimacy and privacy significant.Aaron's appreciation of hardship, and God's rough love erupts in a speech after rebuking Ezri's advances, but soon afterwards gives in. The rare happy moments occur in the synagogue and during Aaron's family table, that is inside a community.But the community grows reserved, then hostile; presumably the orthodox ex has spread the word about Ezri doing "a lot of charities." This is echoed in the gradual bashing of a neighboring grocer because he serially degrades the daughter of a respectable member of the community. Throughout the film there is a fine balance between the intimate and the communal accent, perhaps sometimes a bit too cool a balance.But then you have that stunning shot when Aaron, in front of his butchery's shop, cannot go on because he has a family, and Ezri responds that he has only him - then, after just the right amount of words we wanted to listen to, a van passes and upon his panes an ominous group of orthodox Jews is reflected, as a chorus in a Greek tragedy.But to cut to the chase, the most peculiar scene in the film is the exchange between Aaron and the rabbi, after things have turned nasty with rumors and talk that amounts to gangster-like, secular threats. What strikes us is the non-melodramatic voicing. "I am alive, I need him" he exclaims at odds with the way it is put to these words. And then the rabbi, peculiarly, nods in recognition, if not in acknowledgment of Aaron's stand.At this point I realized this is a new version of wrestling with the angel, and here I want to applaud the magnificently spare script, with its spiritual care and yearning. "I am alive, I need him," he says. He has seen the face of God, and has survived, like Jacob. He was dead, like his father, but now the name of his father can speak through him. It is also a shocking declaration because this "need" has all the unabashed, indeed obscene glow of being alive because of love. Or is it just lust? The film thankfully breaks down any dissociation between the two. Watch how Aaron clenches close-up his angel the moment he abandons him, just after they have mutely acknowledged their love ("I know," says Ezri); this is affecting and uncanny. It can also be helplessly funny if one thinks that Ezri, as his name suggests, did not help anyone.The film ends as Aaron halts to a ritual bath to purge himself and vanishes underwater. Why hint at suicide? This needless dramatic gesture literally denies the blessing, which means more life. It has to be this way? I wonder. Still, the film stands as a powerful ruining of the sacred truths running gender and religious persuasions that separate God and sexuality.

Unfortunately, as in many films coming from Israel there are deep flaws in the making of the film. For some reason the Israeli film industry loves to make films focusing on the Orthodox community and setting up a rather bland love affair between two religious men - well it becomes so ordinary and so expected. There is nothing interesting, no drama, no dynamics, no ups and downs. All that talent and it goes nowhere. The acting is poor, and I blame that on the director. I'm not sure what the point of the story is. Forbidden love? Of course it is forbidden but this is not a love story. And in many ways too unrealistic to even give it any weight.I feel bad that with some much talent in Israel, in all aspects of film making so few really good solid films are actually produced. Instead, just because it is about homosexuality and set in the Orthodox community every one gets a bit excited! But it has nothing to do with film making.