A girl bringing her fiancé home for dinner with her dysfunctional family is hardly virgin comic territory, but Dominic Harari's Only Human raises the stakes by adding an edgy contemporary element, since the family is Jewish and the boyfriend is Palestinian. The daughter is a free-spirited girl working in television, who hasn't informed the family that her boyfriend—a bearded, nervous academic—isn't Jewish. Her father is absent, keeping long hours at the office, but the rest of the clan is oppressively present—a flustered mother, a sister who's a flirtatious exotic dancer, the sister's troublemaking young daughter, an ostentatiously orthodox brother, and a blind, senile grandfather who's apt to talk about his days as an Israeli soldier and wave his old rifle about. Humorous slapstick ensues, the most notable scene being when the guest drops a tub of frozen soup out the kitchen window, inadvertently knocking out a passerby he believes is his girlfriend's returning father. Complications follow, although—not surprisingly—reconciliation and acceptance win out in the end. For much of its running time, Only Human is moderately engaging, even if the characters tend towards caricature and some comic bits are needlessly coarse, but while the film is amiable overall and occasionally even insightful, it's also sometimes just plain silly. Then again, nobody's perfect. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)
Only Human
Magnolia, 93 min., in Spanish w/English subtitles, R, DVD: $26.99, Oct. 17 Volume 21, Issue 5
Only Human
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