Weekly round-up

Interpreting Islam and juvenile Jackie Chan

FAITH-OFF: I Wear the Veil

by MALCOLM FRASER

I Wear the Veil
Natasha Ivisic, a Laval-based convert to Islam, tells the story of her complex relationship with the hijab in this documentary she co-directed with Yanick Létorneau. Raised as a Slavic Catholic, she converted after marrying a Muslim man and now, after 13 years of wearing the veil, she finds herself trying to explain what it all means to her teenage daughter. But in this attempt at explanation, she runs into a host of different interpretations within the Muslim community and finds herself questioning some of the tenets of her faith.

From the War on Terror to the Danish cartoon controversy to Quebec’s “reasonable accommodation” debate of recent years, Muslims’ place in Western society and prejudice against their faith are obviously hot-button topics. This film comes from an insider’s point of view, and concerns itself less with the bigger social picture than with debates within the Islamic community itself. Over the course of the film, Ivisic talks to women who espouse radically different interpretations of the Koran’s rulings on feminine fashion, from conservatives who blithely refer to God’s law to liberals who believe that “hijab” simply means modest dress, and who tie Islamic modesty to feminism in that it prevents women from being seen as sexual objects.

For Western liberals, the debate is vexing because it pits two of the items on our politically correct laundry list—women’s rights and religious freedom—in direct confrontation. This insider’s view provokes a lot of thought by making the issue even more complicated, and the hour-long doc leaves you wanting more.

The Spy Next Door
If “Jackie Chan children’s film” doesn’t scare you off, the resume of director Brian Levant (the Flintstones flicks, Are We There Yet?, Problem Child 2) will put the fear in most filmgoers. Here Chan plays Bob Ho, an international spy posing as a mild-mannered pen salesman. In this undercover persona, he’s dating his next-door neighbour Gillian (Amber Valletta), a single mom with three kids—a cute toddler, a wisecracking boy and a hormonally irritable teenage girl. When Valletta has to leave town on a family emergency and Chan finds himself juggling babysitting with his espionage duties, madcap hijinks ensue.

Despite having been in Hollywood for a while now, Chan’s English is pretty damn spotty—stock lines like “Call it a hunch” are delivered with almost phonetic awkwardness. And his martial artistry is still solid, but the days of jaw-dropping physicality are far behind him now. Chan films are known for their closing-credits blooper reels, full of bungled takes of his death-defying stunts. But The Spy Next Door’s closing montage begins not with him, say, jumping off a helicopter onto a boat, but repeatedly failing to pick up a folding chair from the floor (seriously).

In spite of it all, Chan and the kids’ chemistry keeps the film tolerable, but its appeal is really limited—it’s way too juvenile for anyone remotely mature, but the oddly melancholy family subplot isn’t really for little kids. If there’s a nine to 12-year-old boy in your life, though, he’ll probably find it just about perfect.

BOTH FILMS OPEN THIS FRIDAY,
JAN. 15