Reviewed by Justin Bateman
Stars Lisa Ray, Sheetal Sheth, Daud Shah, Rez Kempton, Antonia Frering, Dalip Tahil, Nina Wadia, Ernest Ignatius, Siddiqua Akhtar, Amber Rose Revah, Anya Lahiri, Kimberly Jaraj, Sam Vincenti
Written by Shamim Sarif & Kelly Moss
Certification UK 12A | US PG-13
Runtime 80 minutes
Directed by Shamim Sarif
Tala (Ray), is a well-to-do Palestinian woman brought up in Jordan and living in London. She is about to get married to Hani (Shah), her fourth fiancé, when she meets up with her best friend Ali (Kempton) and his Indian girlfriend Leyla (Sheth). Tala flirts a little with Leyla who, although slightly confused, finds herself attracted to the confident bride to be.
Despite being marketed tongue in cheek as "just another British, Indian, Muslim, Arab, Christian, lesbian romantic comedy", it still manages to feel predictable. And while the story seems worth telling, there are so many problems it’s difficult to know where to begin. Let’s start with the comedy aspect. I’m a firm believer that if a film has pun in the title it had better be bloody funny. Sadly, films like this rarely are, and this is no exception. When the dialogue isn’t clichéd (“If I want your opinion, I’ll give it to you”) it’s just poorly written (“We all wish we had hindsight”).
We do all have hindsight, it’s foresight we all wish we had. The foresight to get someone who could write involved in the script would have helped. In addition, a lot of the cast don’t appear to have any concept of comic timing or overact horribly, or both. They’re not helped by one-dimensional characterisation – mothers are bigoted and overwrought, fathers are quiet and understanding. The leading ladies are okay and admittedly are very easy on the eye, but Lisa Ray’s character seems uninterested throughout, even when she’s supposed to be heartbroken.
Alongside the main story, there are a few mentions of the Israel-Palestine conflict but they’re so brief and superficial they feel like they’ve been crowbarred in to add some intellectual weight to the piece. So while the characters aren’t unsympathetic as such, the multitude of faults means it’s hard to keep focused. The sentiment is fine and I’m sure it will resonate with some people but overall the film is poorly executed and lacks not only subtlety but perhaps more crucially, a decent script.