Reviewer's Rating 3 out of 5 Ìý User Rating 4 out of 5
Only Human (Seres Queridos) (2005)
15Contains infrequent strong langauge

Fiancés Leni and Rafi are in love; the kind of hormonal, shout-it-from-the-rooftops love that ignores politics and religion; the trembly kneed, sweaty-palmed infatuation that doesn't care that they are a Spanish Jew and a Palestinian. Until, that is, Rafi meets Leni's family on one eventful Madrid evening and total pandemonium ensues. Only Human is an energetic, colourful farce that attempts, in its own small way, to figure out why people find it so hard to live in harmony.

Set for the most part in the kooky Galinsky family's cramped Madrid flat, this stagey comedy plays like a Latin-Jewish Royle Family on speed. When the befuddled Rafi (Guillermo Toledo) arrives, he is met by an array of eccentric and embarrassing characters, including the excellent Norma Aleandro as Leni's downtrodden and emotional mother, and Tania (Maria Botto), her belly-dancing, bed-hopping sister. The breakneck burlesque soon escalates to hysterical levels: Rafi's clumsiness in the kitchen results in a possible patricide, and he's discovered in a compromising position with his fiancé's senile, blind grandfather in the bathroom.

"SOME WRY ONE-LINERS"

Amidst the chaos, it's a relief that husband-and-wife writer/director team, Dominic Harari and Teresa De Pelegri, rein in the potentially overwhelming silliness with some wry one-liners. The unrelenting and claustrophobic action also benefits from a change of location in the final act, as events reach a climax and the evening from hell becomes a night of personal revelations. Only Human's farcical humour isn't nearly as broad as its humanist message, but it is full of life.

In Spanish with English subtitles.

End Credits

Director: Teresa De Pelegri, Dominic Harari

Writer: Teresa De Pelegri, Dominic Harari

Stars: Norma Aleandro, Guillermo Toledo, Maria Botto, Marián Aguilera

Genre: World Cinema, Comedy

Length: 89 minutes

Cinema: 20 May 2005

Country: Spain/UK/Argentina/Portugal

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