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Only Human review
:. Director: Dominic Harari & Teresa Pelegri
:. Starring: Guillermo Toledo, Marián Aguilera
:. Running Time: 1:29
:. Year: 2006
:. Country: Spain
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The American ad campaign has tried to paint Only Human as a "Woody Allen meets Pedro Almodóvar comedy in Madrid", but that's not an accurate depiction. It's a fast-paced, over the top screwball comedy that works precisely because it deals with issues that American comedy can't possibly tackle, since in the U.S. the genre is primarily primarily towards the adolescent boy demographic in the U.S. It's Meet the Parents crossed with Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, only Spanish-Jewish-Palestinian style with mordant one-liners. Leni (Marian Aguilera) brings home her Palestinian fiancé Rafi (Guillermo Toledo) to meet her Jewish family. She's promised that they are liberals but the only liberal one is her libertine slut of a sister who's also a belly dancer (María Botto). From there he meets the rest of the wacky family, from the blind gun-toting grandfather and the Nouveau Orthodox son to the obtrusive long-suffering mother (Norma Aleandro) whose sharp tongue gets her into trouble.
One thing always leads to another in these types of films and soon enough a block of frozen soup accidentally tossed from the window may prove murderous. Lies and cover-ups only make the situation worse (Rafi thinks he may have inadvertently killed Leni's father) and what should have been a peaceful family dinner turns into pandemonium. Family pathos march out single file and frigidity, sibling rivalry, jealousy, and general dysfunction are only the tip of the iceberg of this wickedly funny farce.
Of course there are scenes that can be eliminated, and I tend to veer towards leaving any bathroom scenes on the cutting floor, especially the one involving Rafi and the grandfather. And the slutty sister's 6 year old daughter is more annoying than funny — rather than being a scene-stealer, you sort of hope Rafi throws her out of the window along with the soup.
Leni and Rafi act as if their unorthodox love will never be a problem, but of course a blow up at the end shows where their cultures clash and it's hilarious. Coupled with an excellent performance by Aleandro as a mother who must always have the last word ("There'll be peace in Israel before your father gives me an orgasm!"), a truly enjoyable film is born, both for its humor and its intelligence. The last movie that cracked me up to this extent another Spanish film called Semen: A Love Story. It's refreshing to see that Spanish film is not all Almodóvar (whose films I adore) or filled with corrupt priests in the countryside at the onset of the Spanish civil war.
I laughed a lot during the film but had insomnia later in the night, thinking about the craziness of families coupled with the lunacy of politics: in one scene Aleandro laments that her possible future grandchild will be forced to blow itself up due to his/her Palestinian heritage. In another, the fact that we seem to be living in the Middle Ages is made abundantly clear. In the end though, there are enough tender moments in the film to keep from falling into a total depression about the state of the world.
Anji Milanovic
 Movie Reviews: Spanish Films
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