The transition to adulthood carries with it many decisions. Do you want to marry? If so, whom should you marry? What do you want as a career? What kind of person will you aspire to be? How steadfast will you hold to the religious convictions under which you were raised?
Parents are wise to let their children answer these questions themselves. Children are wise not to let their parents dictate answers. In the end, a child’s life is its own to lead. This difficult transition toward maturity and independence is the central issue explored by the film “Late Marriage.”
The opening scenes of “Late Marriage” introduce the audience to an Israeli Orthodox Jewish family. Zaza (Loir Ashkenazi) is the 31-year-old only child of the family. His parents support his graduate-school studies by giving him carte blanche on using their credit card.
Much to his parent’s consternation, he has yet to find a wife. His parents have introduced him to hundreds of respectable girls in the hopes he would marry; however, he seems perfectly content to remain a bachelor.
In fact, Zaza is secretly seeing a woman, Judith (Ronit Elkabetz). Judith is a beautiful older woman, 34 and divorced. To make matters worse, she is raising a daughter without a father. Zaza promises her that he will someday introduce her to his parents and marry her.
One night, through a twist of fate, Zaza’s parents (Moni Moshovonov and Lili Kosashvili) discover that their son has been seeing Judith. Lily, Zaza’s mother, declares, “There will never be a divorcee living under my roof.”
“Late Marriage” does not aspire to portray a massive blow-up between generations or fireworks as traditional values confront the modern world. The great strength of the movie is its ability to show everyday life.
We see conversations over dinner, a child’s simple diary, understated familiarity during lovemaking, a tense conversation among prospective in-laws. The dialog, the scenery, the camera shots seem to convey the richly mundane quality of everyday life.
Writer/director Diver Koshashvili was smart to film such a movie in this way. It would have been seductively easy for Koshashvili to melodramatically deal with the universal issues of generational conflict and individual desires against traditional values. He instead presents realistic, developed characters and allows them to interact with one another in a believable manner. The result is a climax that is both poignant and touching.
The actors demonstrate an uncanny ability to act within this framework. Particularly solid in his performance is Moni Moshovonov as Zaza’s father Yasha. He exudes frailty, tyranny, shame, hypocrisy and understanding. In short, he personifies the contradictions between traditional structures and the modern world.
It would be easy to see this film and think of Yasha as the villain of the movie, but at the very same time he is the movie’s most sympathetic character. He tells a prospective in-law that he only cares about reason and dismisses love as the basis for a marriage; yet we later learn that he once loved a lady who was not his wife and was forced under threat of death to leave her.
Her memory apparently still haunts him, but he will not act on these feelings or tolerate similar feelings in his son. He deserves the misery he brought on himself, but the very fact that he feels this emptiness serves to evoke pity from the audience.
One of the greatest treats a film audience can have is to be told a simple, bittersweet story by an adept director and convincing actors. This is such a movie. There are scenes of hilarious social comedy as well as times of deep sadness.
In the end, “Late Marriage” forces the audience to confront a difficult question: What should be the foundations of a healthy parent-child relationship as that child moves into the real world?
This movie is worth seeing.
Grade — AB
