Focus

Starring: Laura Dern, William H. Macy

RS: Not Rated

2001 Drama

From a novel by playwright Arthur Miller, deals with anti-Semitism in New York during World War II. William H. Macy and Laura Dern play a couple who befriend a Jewish news dealer (the reliably superb David Paymer) and find themselves ostracized by neighbors. Neal Slavin, a photographer making his debut as a director, overdoes the portent, but in this time of Muslims being wounded by the same arrows aimed at Taliban terrorists, there is no denying the relevance of the tale.

PETER TRAVERS
(RS 881- Nov. 8, 2001)