The story could easily be a crude Fox sitcom or a schmaltzy reality series: An Israeli newborn and a Palestinian newborn are switched during a bomb scare in Haifa, Israel, a fact that neither discovers until their 18th birthdays. Instead, in The Other Son, this programmatic, easily exploitable story is played with tender care, cultural awareness and fabled resonance by writer-director Lorraine Levy. Joseph (Jules Sitruk) is the Muslim raised as a French-speaking Jew, a sensitive soul unfit for military service with aspirations toward music stardom; Yacine (Mehdi Dehbi) is the Jew raised as a Muslim, a doctoral student matriculating in France whose new reality is exacerbated by a militant, anti-Zionist brother. The movie’s title has multiple levels, and the very subject of “otherness” is essential to the film’s seemingly unsolvable quagmire. Levy poses the question, “Does genetics trump culture?” understanding that there is no easy answer. But her contemplation of the new paradigm makes for edifying viewing, and audiences will walk away with a more thorough understanding of Israeli-Palestinian border relations and the resentment that festers on the West Bank side. The ending is too pat, melodramatic and conciliatory, but at least 90 minutes of this picture are very good. Now playing (in French with English subtitles) at Frank Theaters Intracoastal Cinema in Miami, the Gateway in Fort Lauderdale, Frank Theatres-Stadium 15 @ Las Olas Riverfront, Living Room Theaters, Regal Shadowood 16 and Cinemark Palace 20 in Boca Raton, Regal Delray 18, Movies of Delray and Movies of Lake Worth. – John Thomason
Theater: The distance between the lives of Mozart and Salieri as they actually were and how they are depicted in Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus is vast and unbridgeable, but Shaffer spun a fascinating meditation on talent and its source out of the original Pushkin story, and it’s well worth enjoying it for what it is. This week, the Maltz Jupiter Theatre launches a two-week run (Oct. 30-Nov. 11) of the play, starring Ryan Garbayo as Mozart and Tom Bloom as Salieri. British director Michael Gieleta will direct this Amadeus, and has noted in his press quotes that Mozart’s need to network in the 1780s and 1790s was just as important then as it is now. Tickets for the show are $46; call 561-575-2223 for times and information, or visit jupitertheatre.org.
Art: The Art of Video Games, a groundbreaking exhibition from the Smithsonian Museum exploring the 40-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, is on display at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. The exhibition, which runs through Jan. 13, 2013, features 80 video games presented through still images and video footage as well as video interviews with developers and artists. The Art of Video Games highlights some of the best video games for 20 gaming systems ranging from Atari VCS to Playstation 3. Five featured games — Pac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and Flower — are available in the exhibition galleries for visitors to play for a few minutes. For more information, visit www.bocamuseum.org.
Music: Murray Perahia is a classic American pianist from the older generation, the kind of player who gives peerless performances of repertory at the very heart of the pianistic tradition. And so it is with his recital Monday night at the Broward Center, when he’ll play music by Haydn (Sonata No. 39 in D, Hob. XVI: 24), Beethoven (the deathless Moonlight Sonata, or No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2), Schumann (Fassingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26) and Schubert (the Moments Musicaux, D. 780). He’ll also play the first of Chopin’s four Scherzi (No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20). Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. recital run from $25-$65. Call 954-462-0222 or visit www.browardcenter.org.