Aren't we all. This movie was recommended by Cate, who knew I loved Little Miss Sunshine and assured me that if I liked that, I'd love Only Human.
This is the story of two lovebirds who go for a family visit so that he can meet her family. Leni's a TV personality, from a Jewish family in Spain. He's a University professor. Her family's a bit strange: her mother is a bit anxious, father is a workaholic, brother embraces causes fanatically: he's going whole hog over Orthodox Judaism (so to speak), her sister is a nymphomaniac, and her niece is a very strange child. Grandpa is blind and reliving the war. He keeps a loaded gun in the closet.
Leni introduces Rafi, and the family embraces him...until they find out that he is Palestinian. As they are trying to come to grips with this factoid, the plot begins to unravel. Rafi, trying to help, offers to heat up the soup that is the evening meal. As he struggles to get it out of the container, it slips out of his grasp and out the open window.
He leans out the window and sees that it has beaned a gentleman who is lying on the pavement. He drags Leni downstairs. She convinces him to grab the soup while she calls emergency services. They return upstairs with the soup. She never actually sees the victim.
Rafi is riddled with guilt and keeps looking out the window. His behavior gets increasingly strange as he gets more anxious, particularly as he looks at pictures and comes to believe that the victim was Leni's father.
The movie is over-the-top often, and pretty silly. Everyone is dysfunctional to some extent. But it moves along with plot twist after plot twist.
Fortunately, the couple are pretty endearing. Will they stay together? Watch and find out.
[Image via City Paper]
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