Review by Rona Wiener
Eyes Wide Open follows the struggles of Aaron, a devout family man in the orthodox Jewish community. After he hires Ezri to help at his butcher shop in Jerusalem, Aaron risks everything and allows a relationship to develop.
The conflict between religion, temptation, faithfulness, love, and the threat of being ostracized should make for a compelling story. Unfortunately, the movie fails to rise to the challenge. Instead, it slowly makes its way through an oppressive atmosphere, where deep emotions are implied, rather than expressed. The subtitles are also very poorly done and in some cases substantially different from the actual dialogue. On the bright side, the dialogue is really not that exciting, so you’re not missing out on much.
Eyes Wide Open will be shown at the Tampa Theatre on Oct. 11 at 9 p.m. Go to the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival website for more information.
This article appears in Oct 7-13, 2010.