A Stranger Among Us

 (Crime drama--Color)

By TODD MCCARTHY

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A Buena Vista release of a Hollywood Pictures presentation in association with Touchwood Pacific Partners II of a Propaganda Films production in association with Sandollar. Produced by Steve Golin, Sigurjon Sighvatsson, Howard Rosenman. (Manifesto international sales). Executive producers, Sandy Gallin, Carol Baum. Coproducers, Susan Tarr, Robert J. Averech. Line producer, Burtt Harris. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Screenplay, Averech.
 
Emily Eden ... Melanie Griffith
Ariel ... Eric Thal
Levine ... John Pankow
Mara ... Tracey Pollan
Rebbe ... Lee Richardson
Leah ... Mia Sara
Nick ... Jamey Sheridan
Yaakov ... Jake Weber
 

CANNES--Likely to be known in the trade as "Vitness," Sidney Lumet's fish-out-of-water mystery about a case-hardened WASP female cop investigating a murder in New York's cloistered Hasidic community tries to make up in local color what it lacks in dramatic plausibility. Probe into this unusual, little known religious culture has numerous points of sympathetic interest, but extreme predictability of the script's structure and relaxed pacing for a police procedural cause "A Stranger Among Us" to fall well short of its intended impact. Commercial prospects look limited.

Titled "Close to Eden" until very recently, Robert J. Averech's first produced screenplay since "Body Double," which also starred Melanie Griffith, tries to introduce general audiences to some of the mysteries of the Hasidim, a group that, like the Amish, is adamantly rooted in its old traditions and keeps very much to itself.

Entry in is provided by Griffith, a seen-it-all cop who, after having killed a thug who stabbed her lover-partner, is assigned to the low-pressure case of a vanished Hasidic jewelry dealer. When this fellow turns up dead in his office with $ 720,000 in diamonds missing, Griffith's mission assumes greater proportions, prompting her to move in with the Brooklyn group's Rebbe (Lee Richardson) and his adopted children Eric Thal--the next Rebbe designate-- and Mia Sara in order to penetrate the community in search for the killer.

A tough-talking, short-skirted, cigarette-smoking babe at the outset, Griffith is induced to tone down her act by the strict rules of the Hasidim. Much is made of their many curious regulations, and lots of talk is given over to Griffith querying Thal about why this or that custom or stricture exists. This is all very interesting from a theological and sociological P.O.V., but as dramatically propulsive dialogue it's scarcely adequate.

Other angle being played here is the forbidden romance between the utterly devout Thal, for whom sex before marriage is unthinkable, and the obviously experienced Griffith, whose recovering b.f. begins pressuring her for a serious commitment during her hospital visits. Under the circumstances, script has Griffith getting too upset that Thal won't just jump in the sack with her, as all other men want to do, and erotic tension between them is too minimal for the viewer to care much.

Griffith's stakeout of the Midtown jewelry store yields a couple of lowlife extortionists, but her suspicions on an inside job on the murder and robbery, mainly because of the close-knit nature of the Hasidim, prove astute. Revelation of the killer is far from surprising, although motive seems thin as toilet paper.

Plot is overloaded with hard-to-take factors. It is giving away nothing to reveal that the murder victim is found lodged above ceiling panels, a place it would seem impossible for the perpetrator to place him. Much more importantly, the nature of the Hasidic community effectively prevents Griffith from conducting any kind of penetrating investigation within it. Very little of her time is actually spent on such matters as tracking down clues, questioning people or developing hunches, whereas she hangs out with Thal, whom she finds cute, as much as possible. Finally, her actions have very little to do with apprehending the killer.

It could be argued that the emphasis is more on her character growth than on crime, and it is true that the best moments are those that display the outsider's growing appreciation of the richness and supportiveness of the Hasidic lifestyle (the rigidly traditional role for women in the culture is tacitly noted and accepted, not discussed in any depth).

Griffith's unspiritual, career-oriented, hardening life, including a family that consists of a retired cop father to whom she cannot communicate, is effectively contrasted to the warmth of this Jewish group and its warm traditions, some of which are depicted at interesting and vaguely exotic length by Lumet, who as much as any director has concentrated upon the myriad facets of New York life during the course of his career.

Griffith is at her best in the role's moments of awakening, when she realizes she is no longer satisfied with the prosaic interests of her cop b.f. and that she may have a spiritual side that has never been acknowledged.

Newcomer Thal is okay, but if he has exceptional talents they remain largely hidden behind his beard and payess. Mia Sara is exceedingly lovely and sympathetic as Thal's friendly sister, and longtime Lumet producer Burtt Harris has a powerful single scene as Griffith's gruff father.

Tech contributions are pro, although Jerry Bock's score lays the ethnic lyricism on a bit thick.

Camera (color), Andrzej Bartkowiak; editor, Andrew Mondshein; music, Jerry Bock; production design, Philip Rosenberg; costume design, Gary Jones, Ann Roth; associate producer, Lilith Jacobs; assistant director, Harris; casting, Joy Todd. Reviewed at the Cannes Film Festival (competing), May 14, 1992. Unrated. Running time: 111 min.