{"id":13849,"date":"2026-01-19T21:09:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=13849"},"modified":"2026-01-19T21:09:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:09:30","slug":"a-stranger-among-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/01\/19\/a-stranger-among-us\/","title":{"rendered":"A Stranger Among Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A Stranger Among Us<\/strong> (1992)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hollywood\/Action-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, violence, mature themes)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sidney Lumet\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Robert J. Avrech\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Bock\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Andrzej Bartkowiak\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Melanie Griffith, Eric Thal, Lee Richardson, Mia Sara, Tracy Pollan, John Pankow, Jamey Sheridan, David Margulies, James Gandolfini, Chris Latta, Burtt Harris, Jake Weber.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $12.2M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0When A Stranger Among Us<\/strong> hit theaters in summer \u201992, critics absolutely slammed it. I didn\u2019t think it was all that bad. It was described as \u201cWitness with matzos\u201d. That\u2019s actually pretty accurate seeing that it concerns a hardened street detective living in an insular religious community while investigating a murder. In this instance, a tough street cop goes undercover in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn to investigate the murder of a young diamond cutter. It\u2019s a fairly standard premise, but director Sidney Lumet makes it work somewhat effectively.<\/p>\n

\u00a0That isn\u2019t the problem with A Stranger Among Us<\/strong>. The problem is the horrible miscasting of Melanie Griffith (Working Girl) as the tough New York street cop. Yep, you read that right, Melanie Griffith plays a tough New York street cop. As expected, she is so NOT believable in the role. It hampers the whole movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Still, I was able to get around this grievous error in casting because I found the rest of A Stranger Among Us<\/strong> fascinating. Specifically, I\u2019m referring to its setting in the Hasidic community. It\u2019s a culture that I find very interesting and that\u2019s where Lumet\u2019s film is at its best. The crime thriller portion of the movie isn\u2019t half bad either. The identity of the killer won\u2019t come as much of a surprise to anybody familiar with the formula of the genre. It\u2019s one of those movies that introduce a huge red herring to the plot as a way of detracting our attention from the most likely suspect in the gallery of major characters. You\u2019ll know what I\u2019m talking about when you see it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Detective Emily Eden (Griffith) has a habit of getting into situations where she\u2019s required to use deadly force. Her latest escapade leaves one bad guy dead and puts her partner (Sheridan, The Ice Storm) in the hospital with a severe stab wound. After the obligatory IAB (Internal Affairs Bureau) review, she\u2019s back on the streets looking into the disappearance of a Hasidic diamond cutter. It doesn\u2019t take Emily long to figure out that he was murdered during the commission of a robbery. Furthermore, he knew his killer. That must mean that the killer is hiding in plain sight among his people. The only way for Emily to weed out the murderer is to go undercover in the Hasidic community.<\/p>\n

\u00a0She moves in with the family of the rebbe<\/em> (Richardson, Q & A) and attempts to pass herself off as a baalat tshuva<\/em> (\u201cone who has returned\u201d). She takes a liking to his adopted son Ariel (Thal, The Puppet Masters), an extremely gifted young man who\u2019s expected to become the next rebbe<\/em>. He keeps all 613 Mitzvot<\/em> (\u201cCommandments\u201d) and studies Kabbalah even though it\u2019s not encouraged for men under the age of 40. He\u2019s also waiting to meet his bashert<\/em> (\u201csoulmate\u201d), a rebbe<\/em>\u2019s daughter from Paris. Emily also becomes friends with Lea (Sara, Ferris Bueller\u2019s Day Off), the rebbe<\/em>\u2019s daughter and the one who helps her navigate her way through a very different world. As Emily learns the many customs and rules dictating the Hasidic lifestyle, she tries to uncover the identity of the as-yet-unknown killer and gets her first break when a couple of mobsters show up asking for protection money.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although there are a couple of well-mounted action sequences, Lumet chooses to focus on character which would have been fine if not for an unconvincing performance by Griffith. She\u2019s a decent actress in the right role (e.g. Something Wild, Working Girl, Crazy in Alabama). A Stranger Among Us<\/strong> is definitely the wrong part for her. Listen to the way she talks and the sound of her voice. Does that say tough New York cop to you? I actually have a theory as to how Griffith ended up in the role. She was supposed to play the female lead in Medicine Man (same studio) and Lorraine Bracco (Goodfellas) was supposed to play the lead in Lumet\u2019s films. The actresses walked onto the wrong sets on the first day of shooting and nobody bothered to correct their mistake. I know this is a ridiculous theory, but is it any more ludicrous than casting Griffith in A Stranger Among Us<\/strong>? Bracco would have been perfect in the role, but hindsight is always 20\/20.<\/p>\n

\u00a0That being said, the character is well written in that screenwriter Avrech adds depth and dimension to her. Emily\u2019s personal life is a mess. She appears to have unresolved issues with all the men in her life. She was sexually involved with her injured partner and her new partner (Pankow, To Live and Die in L.A.) won\u2019t stop propositioning her. She starts to develop feelings for Ariel even though he cannot return her affections. She must know on some level that they can never be together, but that doesn\u2019t stop her from imploring him to chuck away the only life he has ever known for a relationship that will never work out.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Emily isn\u2019t very close to her own father, a retired cop and recovering alcoholic who can\u2019t\/won\u2019t express his love for his daughter. She comes to see the rebbe<\/em> as a father figure because he seems to genuinely care about this outsider. He\u2019s a fascinating character; his own family died in the concentration camps and he adopted Ariel and Lea after their parents were killed in a car accident. He\u2019s a very wise, compassionate and caring man who helps out those in need, like Mara (Pollan, Family Ties), a former drug addict that the murdered man took care of after finding her on the streets. Now a beloved member of the community, she\u2019s one of the few who know Emily\u2019s true identity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When the movie centers on the Hasidic culture, it\u2019s fascinating. It\u2019s too bad that a dingbat like Griffith has to undermine what might have been a powerful film. Although I like A Stranger Among Us<\/strong>, I\u2019m willing to concede that it\u2019s not one of Lumet\u2019s best films. Remember, this is the man who\u2019s given us classics like Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network, Prince of the City, The Verdict and Q & A. The supporting performances are all quite good, especially the late Richardson as the rebbe<\/em>. Given the critical bashing this one has taken, I\u2019m going to classify it as a guilty pleasure. I probably shouldn\u2019t like it as much as I do, but since film is a subjective medium, I won\u2019t apologize.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Stranger Among Us (1992)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hollywood\/Action-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, violence, mature themes)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sidney Lumet\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Robert J. Avrech\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Bock\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Andrzej Bartkowiak\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Melanie Griffith, Eric Thal, Lee Richardson, Mia Sara, Tracy Pollan, John Pankow, Jamey Sheridan, David Margulies, James Gandolfini, Chris Latta, Burtt Harris, Jake Weber.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/A-Stranger-Among-Us-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13849"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13882,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13849\/revisions\/13882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}