Seres queridos

I had the opportunity to see a preview of this movie (to be entitled "Only Human" for English-speaking audiences).

A genuinely funny take on a very real situation: Spanish Jewish neurotic girl who is a TV presenter in Madrid brings home her Palistinian lecturer boyfriend to meet her dysfunctional family.

Her sister is a nymphomaniac belly-dancer who lives at home with her five year old contrary daughter, younger brother (who is going through a faux ultra-orthodox stage), blind grandfather, pre-menopausal mother and a duckling!

The farcical plot (such as it is) revolves around some frozen soup, belly-dancing, Jewish-Islamic shiboleths and all the fun you can pack into 96 minutes!

It's cleverly plotted, extremely convincingly acted, neatly directly and very reminiscent of Pedro Almodavar - on acid! I fell off my chair laughing.

The use of klezmer-meets-belly-dancing music by Charlie Mole is a masterstroke of scoring.

Sure to be a great word of mouth hit, much as "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" eventually became.

This film is an interesting comedy that explores all the differences between Palestinian and Jewish people creating several situations that make not only people laugh but also think about how close these cultures are in fact. The story begins when Leni, a Jewish girl, decides to introduce his fiancée, a Palestinian boy, to her family. After being shortly shocked with these news, Leni's mother decides to support their wedding, blessing their engagement. Then, an accident caused by Rafi gives rise to several comic situations that will keep you laughing all the time. Doubtless the cast is very good, but I would like to mention Norma Aleandro's performance.

This is a Spanish film (subtitles) about a Jewish girl who brings her Palestinian boyfriend home to meet the family. This is not a serious social or political commentary. It is a farce in the vein of Opera Buffo and a long tradition of Spanish farces. It's hysterically funny and well done, but it is what it is. I enjoyed it tremendously. The bathroom scene with the fiancé and the grandfather had me laughing so hard I needed cpr.

The dialog is well done and tight. There is one scene towards the end where the girl and her boyfriend are having a fight and they go thru the entire Israeli/Palestinian conflict in about 3 minutes. It's really an accomplishment.

A good film about a subject that desperately needs some humor, especially these days.

I knew nothing about this film, and 'Spanish comedy' was not a genre I was familiar with or had particular expectations of. But this turned out to be the funniest thing I have seen for a long time. It has pure farce, played with impeccable timing, with such unlikely props as a tub of frozen soup and a duckling. It has wild satire both of religious fundamentalism and of amoral sexual behaviour and several other things in between. It centres on the relationship between a Jewish woman and a Palestinian man, and although it casts no profound light on their situation, it manages to portray them without excessive stereotyping and to include one quick fire debate which contains a potted history of the entire conflict without losing comic momentum. Yet it leaves all the characters with some shreds of human dignity, in spite of their farcical characteristics.

Thoroughly enjoyable tale of a woman in Spain bringing her Palestinian boyfriend home to meet her Jewish family. Needless to say all sorts of stereotypes and clichés pop up but it's all done in a reasonably realistic yet funny way. It's all played very much for laughs and this works as it is certainly one of the funnier movies that I have seen this year. It is also a victory for the basics of cinema. There are no special effects, no big artist soundtracks and as it was a foreign movie for me, it translated well and had no big stars. The story moves along perfectly and we see all of the characters that we need to see for the purposes of the story. If I had one criticism it would be that the end slightly over simplifies certain issues raised and feels a little too tidy given what has gone before. I felt that there either should have been one last joke to end on or perhaps an edgier/darker resolution to the issues raised. Nonetheless, it remains an amusing insight into the fact that families will drive you mad, no matter what!