Let My People Go!

A hilarious romantic farce, Let My People Go! is a perfectly paced fable that at times feels like a living cartoon. Ruben (Nicolas Maury)—a Paris native working as a postman in Finland while living with his gay lover, Teemu (Jarkko Niemi)—is more or less forced to take possession of nearly 200,000 Euros from a dying man on his delivery route. Teemu refuses to accept Ruben's explanation about innocently acquiring the money, throwing his partner out of their home. Reluctantly, Ruben returns to his wacky Jewish family (and community) in Paris, where writer-director Mikael Buch stages one comically surreal scene after another. One can quickly see why Ruben (who is somewhat reminiscent of actor Paul Reubens, aka Pee-Wee Herman) was previously very happy to be living a long way from his relatives. His mother (Carmen Maura) passes out at yoga; an uncle tries to get him into the dry cleaning business; and his brother and brother-in-law engage in a slapstick fight. Buch establishes the right pitch early on in this sharp and disciplined comedy that carries a hint of madness. Recommended. (T. Keogh)