The hilarious 2004 Spanish comedy “Only Human” may take its plot points from American fare like “Meet the Parents” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” but the sense of humor is decidedly “Fawlty Towers.”
What else to conclude of a film in which: a container of frozen soup accidentally falls from a high-rise and seemingly kills a man; a blind veteran of Israel’s War of Independence routinely wanders the house pointing a carbine at his family; the man of the house, momentarily suffering amnesia, mistakes a black hooker for his wife, then wanders the streets of Madrid without his pants?
“Only Human” screens at the Contra Costa International Jewish Film Festival March 6 at CineArts in Pleasant Hill.
The nuttiness of “Only Human” has at its root a simple storyline: Leni, an accomplished and beautiful Jewish woman (Marian Aguilera) brings her kindly but bookish boyfriend Rafi (Guillermo Toledo) home to meet the parents and share Shabbat dinner. Only thing: She hasn’t yet told her family that Rafi is Palestinian.
And what a family it is. “Only Human” is “Arrested Development” with a Castilian accent.
Leni’s mother, Norma (Gloria Dali), is the hyper-nervous matriarch fretting over her inability to orgasm. Daughter Tania (Maria Botto) is a raven-haired slut with the brattiest daughter in all of Madrid. Son David (Fernando Ramallo), newly on fire for Orthodox Judaism, is so intent on following the rules of Shabbat, he pre-tears sheets of toilet paper for the weekend.
And then there’s Dudu, the doddering yet randy grandpa, who washes his feet in the bidet while a duckling shares bowl space. No wonder Rafi is so anxious; he makes love with Leni in the elevator on the way up to the family apartment, just to calm down.
As a black comedy, the laughs come with plenty of abiding tension. From the moment Rafi and Leni set foot in the family home, everything goes wrong. Rafi knocks the frozen soup out the window, striking and apparently killing Leni’s father. Hiding Rafi’s responsibility for the act goes about as well as hiding his Arab roots. The humor comes on rapid fire as both secrets unravel. And being a comedy, all’s well that ends well.
Though Leni’s family is nominally Jewish, American Jewish audiences might have a hard time buying it. Other than David’s mega-shomer Shabbos Orthodoxy (which borders on stereotyping), none of the characters do or say anything overtly Jewish.
Only a late-in-the-third-reel argument between Leni and Rafi — in which both let fly their ardent partisanship for their respective “sides” in the Mideast conflict — deals head-on with the basic culture clash set-up. Otherwise the film avoids what it really might mean to a Jewish family to have a Palestinian for a son-in-law. But that’s OK. It’s a comedy after all, and not obligated to be more than skin deep.
Co-directors and co-writers Dominic Harari and Teresa Pelegri have little to work with in terms of sets or production value (the film looks as if it were shot on a shoestring budget). Instead, a solidly funny script and inspired comic performances from the cast (none of whom, to their credit, play it for laughs) prove sufficient.
As Norma says to Leni late in the film: “There will be peace in Israel before your father gives me an orgasm.” Any film that can come up with a line like that deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Though the characters in “Only Human” sometimes behave in ways few humans ever do, this is one comedy well worth seeing.
“Only Human” plays 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 6 at CineArts, 2314 Monument Blvd., Pleasant Hill. Tickets: $9. Information: (510) 839-2900 ext. 256 or jfed.org/jewishfilmfestival.