Sisterhood of the Traveling Graven Images

The Red Tent

Sunday and Monday 9 p.m. Lifetime

When it was published in 1997, Anita Diamant ’s novel charting the life of Jacob’s daughter Dinah, about whom the Bible says almost nothing, was heralded as an overdue tale of female empowerment. In 2014, that same message in a 2-night TV-miniseries version of “The Red Tent” seems about as radical as the 1968 Virginia Slims cigarette slogan, “You’ve come a long way, baby.”

Then again, millions of people world-wide read the book, so many may be drawn to the film as well. In some cases, that could reflect a natural hunger to draw closer to the events of the Bible and the people at the heart of the Old Testament lineage—like Jacob, whom God named Israel. Not that traditional holy themes are much dwelled on in “The Rent Tent,” which barely mentions the Almighty. Inside said tent, in fact, the women who gather there—officially to exile themselves during monthly and other female functions—secretly worship some clay dolls with jutting breasts, thanking a mother-earth spirit in the graven images and summoning her blessings.

On the political side, the glancing mention of Dinah in Genesis is seen in some quarters as a travesty; a symbol of how the Bible was written by men, about men and for men. In this worldview, the concoction of a back story for this forgotten woman stands as an act of splendid defiance and creation.

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There is also a big cast, so let’s just say that Dinah (Rebecca Ferguson) is the only daughter of Jacob (Iain Glen), by his first wife, Leah (Minnie Driver). Dinah grows up headstrong and with a strong sense of justice, exasperating her grandmother Rebecca (Debra Winger, channeling Anne Bancroft?). Eventually shepherd’s daughter Dinah meets a handsome prince. Like many men in the series, he wears a lot of black eyeliner, although the effect is not altogether unpleasing to behold. They fall in love, and then Dinah takes the step which will bring death and destruction to hundreds: She marries the prince without asking her father’s permission. After all, what’s a liberated woman going to do if not defy Dad and eons of tradition?

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/tv-review-the-sisterhood-gets-biblical-star-treatment-in-the-red-tent-1417740195