Unusually a film that I'd say is better than the book, though that wasn't bad. About an Orthodox Jewish community where the death of the rabbi brings his wayward and disobedient daughter back from New York, where she has fled following a scandal in the community. A generally sympathetic depiction of the frumer community - more sympathetic than the book, I think. Somebody has managed to ensure that every prayer in the film uses 'hashem' rather than 'Adonai'. Some lesbian sex - I can't comment on how good they are, having never been there.
One striking thing is that the book managed to convey well the visual ugliness of so much in the Orthodox community's physical environment; I was struck at its description of badly converted houses, that I remembered from my childhood but hadn't ever been aware of consciously. But the film, which is after all a visual art form, doesn't manage this at all - everything looks really quite nice.
Watched at the Everyman cinema in Muswell Hill.
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