Zellweger Gives Tough Role Life in ‘Rubies’

“A Price Above Rubies,” which showcases Renee Zellweger in a challenging role, is yet another movie that gives Brooklyn’s Hasidic community a bad rap. As a child, Zellweger’s Sonia, precocious daughter of a jewelry merchant, instantly proclaims as a fake the ruby her 10-year-old older brother gives her, and to redeem himself he goes off for a midnight swim in a lake and drowns.

From then on, Sonia possesses a wandering soul, haunted by her brother’s death, and could scarcely be a worse choice for the bride of a profoundly religious scholar, Mendel (Glenn Fitzgerald). So puritanical is Mendel that he believes that lovemaking, which is performed “in the sight of God,” shouldn’t be an act of pleasure. But now that he has awakened his bride sexually without satisfying her, she has “a fire burning up inside” that her ruthless, hypocritical brother-in-law Sender (Christopher Eccleston), a Manhattan jewelry merchant, swiftly attempts to extinguish with a loveless but vigorous seduction--and more important, the offer of a job.

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Writer-director Boaz Yakin reduces his characters’ Hasidic community to a patriarchic monolith that oppresses women. “A Price Above Rubies” would be so much richer if it took place in a more deeply evoked world of the Hasidim where today women are enlarging the possibilities open to them within the teachings of the Torah. A world in which, like all others, there are trade-offs: solemnly observed rules that in turn can yield meaning; an enclosed world that nevertheless strives to exist in the midst of modern society with its opportunities--not to mention temptations--forbidden by what most of us would consider archaic doctrine.

As it is, the fluffy 1992 Melanie Griffith vehicle “A Stranger Among Us” treated the Hasidim with more respect than “A Price of Rubies.” Sonia’s new job, purchasing items wholesale for Sender, lifts her spirit and brings her into contact with a handsome Puerto Rican jewelry designer (Allen Payne), who has no idea of how talented he is. Sonia’s entire relationship with him smacks of the contrived and self-conscious, but you just know that one way or another it’s going to spell big trouble for her.

There’s sufficient complexity to Sonia to allow Zellweger to make an impression as a sensual, highly intelligent and deeply conflicted young woman, but no one else--and that includes a mystery lady who follows her as closely as the memory (or ghost?) of her brother--has much authenticity.

“A Price Above Rubies” leaves you feeling that Yakin was trying to create a parable from Sonia’s destiny but lacks the sense of style to pull it off.

* MPAA rating: R, for sexuality and brief language. Times guidelines: The sex scenes, although not graphic, are presented bluntly and are inappropriate for children.

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‘A Price Above Rubies’

Renee Zellweger: Sonia

Christopher Eccleston: Sender

Allen Payne: Ramon

Glenn Fitzgerald: Mendel

A Miramax Film presentation in association with Pandora Cinema in association with Channel Four Films. Writer-director Boaz Yakin. Producers Lawrence Bender and John Penotti. Executive producers Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein. Cinematographer Adam Holender. Editor Arthur Coburn. Costumes Ellen Lutter. Music Leslie Barber. Production designer Dan Leigh. Leslie E. Rollins. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

* Exclusively at the Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (213) 848-3500; and the Pavilion Cinemas, Westside Pavilion, 10800 W. Pico Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 475-0202.