Arranged (2007)

A cinematic gem thanks to the authenticity of its actors, Arranged is a thoughtful and sensitive treatment of the "traditional" Muslim or Orthodox Jewish practice of arranged marriage, particularly as it occurs in America. Indeed, the movie's central premise looks precisely at what happens when two young women -- one Jewish and one Muslim -- teach at the same grade school in Brooklyn and become friends during their families' campaigns to find each woman a suitable husband. Think of Arranged as My Big Fat Muslim/Jewish Wedding but without all the wild drama -- just the domestic angst. Each woman's embedded anticipation of a carefully vetted yet compatible mate is compared with what passes for courtship in the modern world (which the school's principal, semi-channeling Steve Carell as Michael Scott in The Office, offensively asserts is a superior means of matchmaking) as well as each woman's internal struggle with the process. The crux comes as each woman wants to remain true to her faith and her family yet also to preserve her free will, exercise her intuition, and have a say in the selection of whom she would marry. All members of the cast (esp. our leading ladies) convey a marvelous on-screen chemistry; the story drew me in and held my attention from start to finish. For its laudably open and transparent presentation of a fundamental emotional dilemma, Arranged reminds me somewhat of Bella, Maria Full of Grace, or Paradise Now -- though, naturally, to a lesser degree than those (to me) 5-star movies. 4.5 stars.