A sweet and hilarious fusion of gay romantic comedy, Jewish family drama and French bedroom farce, Mikael Buch's Let My People Go! Follows the travails and daydreams of the lovelorn Ruben (Regular Lovers' Nicolas Maury), a French-Jewish gay mailman living in fairytale Finland with his gorgeous Nordic boyfriend. But just before Passover, a series of mishaps and a lovers' quarrel exile the heartbroken Ruben back to Paris and his zany family-which includes Almodovar goddess Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Volver) as his ditzy mom. Scripted by director Mikael Buch and renowned art house auteur Christophe Honor (Love Songs), Let My People Go! #both celebrates and upends Jewish and gay stereotypes with wit, gusto and style to spare. The result is deeply heartwarming, fabulously kitschy and hysterically funny.
J**N
Thoroughly delightful
Let My People Go! is the most delightful movie I've seen in ages. Nicolas Maury is so utterly adorable, so sweetly, innocently, devastatingly sexy, so fascinating to watch every second he's on screen, that I wish he'd already starred in dozens of movies so I could watch them all. Since he hasn't, I'll have to sift through the few in which he has appeared in smaller roles.His seemingly unselfconscious charm makes this whole movie a great joy to watch, and I can't imagine it without him at its heart - but everybody else in it and behind it is so good that I'd give it a try anyway.Maury plays Reuben Steiner (spelled Ruben in the credits), a gay French Jew living in Finland with Teemu, his Finnish husband. His scheme to start a sauna business has failed and he's working as a mailman.A man on his mail route gives him an envelope containing almost 200,000 euro and then appears to drop dead. Teemu gets angry at Ruben for taking the money and kicks him out, so he returns to spend Passover with his highly eccentric but very loving family in Paris.It's a farce, much like a very modern version of a 30s screwball comedy, but all the main characters are so lovable and real that the totally unreal stuff that happens doesn't matter.There are no bad performances (his mother is played by Almodóvar's longtime muse Carmen Maura), no villains in the story except a pig-headed in-law and a couple of snarky cops, but they're negligible. A scene near the end in which the rottweiler-like police chief reads Ruben's love letter (in English) to Teemu over the phone is priceless.A brilliant screenplay (co-written with director Mikael Buch by the divine Christophe Honoré), mostly in French and Finnish with fairly good English subtitles; and an interesting score with songs by Devendra Banhart, Noah and the Whale and others.I rented the movie, but I loved it so much that I've ordered a copy to watch many times over. I can't recommend it highly enough.
J**N
Passover problems!
A very funny movie. I liked how it was filmed, portraying the wackier side of people's personalities. (Come on, we all know someone who acts like at least one of the characters in this movie!) And while I have never experienced a Passover like the one in the movie, the preparation had a very familiar ring to it.
S**
Great!!
My daughter loves these videos. We had gotten her the first video for Christmas (she is 3yrs old) and she LOVED it!!! So I am purchasing all of them, 1 or 2 at a time. I love that it is teaching her the bible, book by book!!
G**N
Delightful escapism!
This is good comedy as Molière, Aristotle, or Chaplin would concur: "Ridendo castigat mori."Woe to those who take themselves too seriously!... and long live the Finnish.
L**E
Great video for kids
I love this new series. It goes much much deeper than most Christian DVDs for kids. I was a little worried it would be too much info making it boring, but my kids LOVE it!
B**L
The description for the movie sounded like this would be entertaining
...but really is was just so bad. The story line was awful, the characters were ridiculous and not at all funny.
M**N
funny, light hearted
Very comical, funny, light hearted, amusing with wonderful ending.
B**D
Sweetly madcap gay-inclusive romatic comedy
Ruben is a bit of a slacker, a native Frenchman who moved to Finland to start a business, but ended up just working as a mailman while shacking up with his hunky blonde boyfriend, Teemu. Their domestic bliss hits a speed bump, when Ruben comes home with a bag of money that a resident on his route gave him, right before he keeled over, likely dead of a heart attack. Teemu throws out Ruben, who takes the money and goes home to France, joining his large Jewish family, right before the Passover holiday. As the only gay member of the family, Ruben has always felt like a bit of an outcast, but soon learns that there's plenty of dysfunction to go around, with his cheating father, physically-aggressive brother, overly-dramatic mother, and a sister who is trying to hide her own marital problems. Then there's their longtime family attorney, who picks him up at a gay bar and pledges eternal devotion.This is a madcap romantic comedy, capably directed and acted, although occasionally a bit over-the-top. Positive messages about equality and relationships, suitable for mixed gay/straight viewers. Not rated, but would be a light R for simulated sexual content, no nudity. In French (some English) with English subtitles, and I give it four stars out of five.
R**R
LIEBEVOLL UND MIT HUMOR
Eine Liebesgeschichte verpackt mit viel Humor über einen jungen jüdischen Mann der sich von seinem Finnischen Liebhaber trennt. Zurück in Frankreich erlebt er die sehr Menschlichen Eigenarten die auch in der jüdischen Glaubenswelt vorkommen. Der Vater hat sei Jahren eine Freundin, die Schwester verheiratet mit einem schlechten Schauspieler, der Bruder als Macho und der Rabi welcher auch schwul ist und in den jungen Hauptdarsteller verliebt. All das sind die Zutaten eines durchaus unterhaltsamen Film. Viele Charaktäre gut dargestellt und der Hauptdarsteller, welcher sich zum Teil sehr tuntig gibt, aber der zum Schluß eine Happy End erleben darf.
P**N
Komödie, die den Namen verdient
Teemu, ein hübscher Finne und der aus einer jüdisch glaübigen Familie aus Paris stammende Ruben leben als glückliches Paar in einem finnischen Dorf zusammen und sind sehr verliebt und zufrieden, sie werden von allen Bewohnern des Ortes toleriert.Als Ruben, der als Briefträger arbeitet, eines Tages mit fast 200.000€ nach Hause kommt und Teemu erzählt ein Nachbar,der offenbar über dem Zustellen des Päckchens an einem Infarkt verstorben sei, habe ihm das Geld geschenkt, entzündet sich ein heftiger Streit. Der Streit endet damit, dass Ruben seinen Koffer packt und nach Paris zu seinen Eltern fliegt.In Paris kommt er wieder ins alte Fahrwasser, umhätschelt und beraten von seiner jüdischen Familie und wird in so manche Affäre von Eltern und Geschwistern hineingezogen. Sein Vater offenbart ihm ein lang gehütetes Geheimnis, sein Bruder Samuel war ihm gegenüber stets etwas feindselig eingestellt, findet versöhnliche Worte in einem klärenden Gespräch, der Konflikt seiner Schwester mit deren Ehemann führt zu weiteren Verwickelungen...Mittlerweile stellt sich in Finnland heraus, dass der vermeintlich tote Nachbar lebt und Teemu die Geschichte bestätigt, die ihm Ruben erzählte. Beide verzehren sich schon lange vor Sehnsucht nach dem anderen und so nimmt die Geschichte einen glücklichen Verlauf.Seit langem mal wieder eine Story, die sich Komödie nennt und zurecht diesen Namen verdient hat. Es gibt keine aufgesetzten und konstruierten Szenen, die witzig sein sollen, die Geschichte ist durchdacht viel Humor resultiert aus Situationskomik, die allerorten auftritt. Wunderbare Schauspieler und ein kurzweiliger, witziger und unterhaltsamer Film mit gewissem Niveau.Ich war auch sehr froh den wunderbaren Clément Sibony wieder vor der Kamera zu sehen.
L**O
una commedia intelligente ed esilarante
Una commedia esilarante che tratta con grande intelligenza e autoironia il tema delle convenzioni e dei pregiudizi della comunità ebraica di Parigi nei confronti di un giovane omosessuale che vive un momento di grande confusione e smarrimento. Attori bravissimi, sceneggiatura piena di invenzioni. Carmen Maura al suo solito livello di bravura. Da non perdere. Adatto a qualunque pubblico.
R**I
Culture et tradition
Ce film, très bien réalisé, permet de comprendre comment ça peut se passer pour les gays au sein de la communauté Juive, aisée, en France.Les acteurs sont tous très bons. La protagoniste "folle", à mon avis, est un peu trop folle, ce qui va faire dire à la gente anti-gays, genre Frigide B.: Ce sont toutes des folles, je vous l'avais bien dit....
J**N
surjoué !
Non vraiment déçu , ce n'est pas ce que les "critiques" avançaient , il n'y a aucun rythme , c'est kitch , on s'ennuie , je cherche , mais ne trouve pas le comique de la "chose" , je déconseille !
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