A Stranger Among Us

Roles

• Emily
• Eden
• Ariel

About this piece

Emily confronts Ariel in the middle of the night Details 1 hr 8 minutes into the film

Summary

Emily Eden (Melanie Griffith) is a tough New York police woman who goes undercover among the Hasidic Jews of New York to solve a murder. As she investigates, her culture clashes with their very conservative outlook on life. To complicate matters, she is also attracted to Ariel (Eric Thal), the son of a Rebbe who just got engaged with a girl he has never met and was a close friend of the murder victim. This scene is between Emily Eden and Ariel. It's an interesting scene as their cultures clash, there is tension as Emily is attracted to him but he is very conservative and uptight. They have philosophical thoughts, they argue and they flirt all in the same scene. It is also a very long scene (about 10 minutes). Emily was sleeping and heard some noises on the street. She grabs a gun and walks out to the backyard and meets Ariel. He is there by himself, thinking. When she tells him she ran down as she heard some noises, Ariel asks her if she is carrying a gun and if she has ever used it. As he puts his jacket on her, she finds the Kabbalah in one of his pockets. She asks him to read from it and happens to read parts with an erotic content...("begin to love her-let her vaginal secreting take place first....") which makes Emily make fun of his uptight demenor. As she asks him about the girl he is engaged to, she finds out he has actually never met her....they argue but Ariel tells her he thinks she is his basherteh...his "destiny" and he knows he loves her. After much philosophical thoughts about true love and so, Emily asks him about romance, love and sex. Argument ensues as she tells him he can have sex without being married...("You're missing one of life's greatest moments...") but as Ariel tells her he doesn't want that, Emily confesses she likes him ("well, the Kabbalah never figured on me...."). Ariel tells her he will be a Rebbe eventually and wants to be worthy of that. As she asks him if that's what he wants, he leaves....

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