Highly Overrated But Still Good

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The Infidel is directed by Josh Appignanesi and written by David Baddiel. It stars Omid Djalili, Richard Schiff, Yigal Naor and Matt Lucas. Music is by Erran Baron Cohen and cinematography by Natasha Braier. Mahmud Nasir, a British Muslim, goes through an identity crisis when he discovers he was adopted as a child and born to a Jewish family.It's a tricky subject to make a comedy out of, but by and large the makers have produced an enjoyable and observational pleasure. Led by the ebullient Omid Djalili as the conflicted protagonist, film unfolds in a series of sections involving Israel, Palestine, Antisemitism and Islamophobia. Along the way there are some great gags, both visual and vocal, but then it culminates in the inevitable message and relies heavily on a weak reveal. The motives and means are genuine, this is not an offensive movie, it has a point and for those who want to delve deeper there is much to kick off discussion. But ultimately it's a good comedy with strong themes of identity and family ties binding the racial hot points at the core. 6/10

Viewed at the Festival de Film 2011, CannesOmid Djalili is a brilliant comedian. So is David Baddiel, the writer. But The Infidel's biggest weakness is its contrived and less than fully functional script: a proud Muslim man discovers he's actually Jewish. Roll on the floor clutching your sides? Afraid not.It's not that the film's heart is in the wrong place, but it wears its liberal credentials and heart so openly, flaunting them on both sleeves, so desperate not to offend it takes no risks whatsoever and comes over as, at best, anodyne. Yes there are some good laughs, but they are occasional and not frequent enough. Instead, we get the author using the characters to give a wave-the-index finger lecture about the need for all of us to get on and look below the surface that is religion and judge the person. Problem is, for many people religion is more than surface deep but the core of the individual, so all reality is missing from this film. Just pause for a second and consider how a strictly religious community would most likely react to discovering one of its members is actually batting for the other side, as it were.Well, fair enough, this is meant to be a comedy, which brings me back to my main criticism: it's not that funny. Omid Djalili has his moments, rolling his eyes and floundering around as his whole life and identity is turned upside down. He also has the perfect white, liberal, Guardian-reading, Channel 4-viewing person's ideal of the perfect Muslim family. Like I say, contrived to the nines.This is an audience that doesn't need this film because it's already presold on it. Will the film change the mindset of the less tolerant members of the community? Of course not, because they won't go see it anyway. As entertainment it falls flat because it's too preachy, too well intentioned, telling you to eat your broccoli and explaining why it's good for you. In fact, if all concerned were not part of the charmed inner circle of British film making, The Infidel would never have got made to start with, any decent producer rejecting the script at the outset.

This seems to be two movies; one good, one not so good. It starts off well enough, seemingly like a Muslim Cosby Show. It shows the London Muslim community in all its diversity, from radical Islamists, to moderate Muslims who hate the radicals for making non-Muslims fear them, to even a liberal imam who's gay friendly. And all the scenes that take place within the Muslim community are really well written and acted. But then the central plot premise comes up: Mahmoud finds out he's adopted and - horror of horrors - that his birth parents were Jewish. At that point, the jokes start getting delivered with less of a rapier wit and more of a sledgehammer, but only when Mahmoud is dealing with his Jewish identity issues. Once he's back to dealing with his family again, things get funny and well-acted. But then we go back to the awkward writing and acting when he's trying to relate to being Jewish, and so it goes. If they'd just cut it down to a movie about moderate vs. radical Muslims, it could have been really good. But unfortunately, it's a really uneven film that feels like a waste of good talent and should have had a better writer and director. 5 stars.

When I watched this film I wonder if a story like this could actually come out from Singapore's film industry. After all, we're one multi-racial and multi-religious melting pot so the context of having such characters here isn't that far fetched, and to have this screened here (albeit under an M18 rating), does say something. Moreover, it's a great film speaking up against religious fanaticism, and aimed its sights well at false prophets who adopt a holier than thou attitude in hoodwinking their followers.Mahmud Nasir (Omid Djalili) and his family are a typical moderate Muslim family, with Mahmud himself living the rather carefree life that had just overcome the death of his mom. His son Rashid (Amit Shah) announces that his intended fiancée and wife to be Uzma (Soraya Radford) will soon be getting a new stepdad, and as it turns out permission for her hand in marriage will have to be sought from none other than Arshad El Masri (Yigal Naor), a firebrand Pakistani cleric infamous for his anti-Western tirades. To Mahmud, this spells trouble to be associated with such a negative, high profile figure, but for the love of his son, have to put up his best behaviour when this international figure comes for a visit to discuss marriage. Not to mention the stress of having to portray himself as a devout Muslim man!And to make matters worse, like the trailer already suggested at length, Mahmud discovers while clearing up his mom's place that he's adopted, and traces his lineage to be actually that of a Jew. A major identity crisis ensues because of his son's future happiness, and of course him having to rediscover and seek out the truth about his roots. With his birth father in critical health in the hospital and at the insistence of a rabbi (Matt Lucas), Mahmud has to reconnect with his Jewish roots in order to stand a whiff of a chance to talk to a man on his deathbed. Thus begins a comedy of errors arising from a clash of obvious cultures and attitudes when Mahmud has to reconcile with a one-time enemy Lenny Goldberg (Richard Schiff), in order to learn the Jewish customs and culture in double quick time.There are plenty of jokes here that treaded the fine line of being racist, and I mean a very fine line. But as the movie put it across, it isn't racist if the one telling it is actually highlighting and poking fun at one's own race, which leaves some food for deeper thought. So we have a barrage of comical situations, some brilliantly crafted and full of wit, while others fell flat and came across as quite distastefully done, but nonetheless there were more positive rip-roaring moments than not, which I feel only the relatively more uptight folks will find additional reasons not to let loose and enjoy the film as it is.More importantly though, beyond the laughter, is its theme of family and friendship that transcends how we look and who we are on the surface, segregated and branded by our name, or religion, or culture, which should never be the case. Sure we can have the freedom to believe in what we want, but with that also come tolerance for that of others, and a reminder never to judge others or compare just because we're different at that level, but fundamentally we belong to the same species inhabiting the same shared earth, and life will be all the more harmonious should we not try to impose bigoted thoughts on others.While the ending may seem a little bit stretched, it did work as intended, and provided a fitting finale with moderatism triumphing over extremism. Both Omid Djalili and Richard Schiff put up fine performances and share excellent chemistry together as enemies turned friends, with their scenes together being some of the best be it focused on physical comedy, or through that rapid fire exchange of insults. Highly recommended for its relevance in our day and age for the messages it sets out to counsel.