"Focus," based on Arthur Miller's novel!!!

I just watched this movie to distract myself from my life (and death) and it was indeed riveting. It takes place in a NY borough (I think?) during WWII, and ironically people are extremely antisemitic. From the start, I kept having to ask my husband (Stinky the Clown) what various pejorative terms meant, or why certain last names would be problematic. (My parents raised me to believe there simply was no prejudice anymore, which made me unprejudiced, innocent, and kind of a lifelong idiot.)

There is a group of "Union Crusaders," a confusing term. Were they working to form labor unions, or a relic of the civil war, or what? Actually, they're like rightwing Trumpers today - fascist, hate-filled bigots.

There is one took-my-breath-away moment near the end of the film when the main character 'advises' the one Jewish man on the block that he might be better off if he moved somewhere else. Of course, by this time it's clear that is exactly what the bigots on the block want. The point is made to all of us when the Jewish man says (paraphrasing), "They aren't coming for me. They're coming for YOU!" I gasped.

Two unfortunate points: Arthur Miller was a man of his era and tended to write women characters badly, and/or as 'bad' - mostly just one-dimensional, flat, 'extras' serving to define the male roles, imo. The ending to the movie was a little out-of-character for the characters, so I looked that up. Not to spoil the novel or the movie, but the film is NOT accurate to Miller's novel!!

Anyway, despite all that, I HIGHLY recommend seeing this. It's a 2001 film, from a 1945 novel, that speaks to our time in clear terms.

(I'd have posted this in GD, but I think it'd go against the rules.)