Pictures Gallery For Only Human

Seres queridos (2005)

Also known as "Only Human"
Overall Score: 7 out of 10

Starring: Guillermo Toledo, Marian Aguilera, María Botto, Fernando Ramallo, Norma Aleandro, Alba Molinero, Max Berliner, Mario Martín, Emiliana Olmedo, Balbino Lacosta, Paco Martínez, Manuel Rodal, Sara Deray, Ramata Koite, Yohana Cobo, Yolanda Hernández, Carlos Herranz, Esther Voong

Director: Teresa De Pelegrí, Dominic Harari

Running Time: 89 minutes

US MPAA rating: N/A
UK BBFC rating: 15
Comedy, Romance

Gloria (Norma Aleandro) is the typically neurotic matriarch of a Jewish family living in a poky seventh-floor Madrid apartment. Her elderly father Dudu (Max Berliner) waves around his fully-loaded army-issue rifle - even though he is blind. Gloria's eldest daughter Tania (María Botto) is a nymphomaniac single mother - while Gloria's younger son David (Fernando Ramallo) has turned to religious orthodoxy because, as Tania observes, he "can't get tit". Only the middle daughter Leni (Marian Aguilera) has any vestige of stability - but when she brings her 'Israeli' fiancé Rafi (Guillermo Toledo) into this emotional minefield for dinner, she has neglected to mention that the bumbling academic is in fact Palestinian. "Palestinians kill Jews and Jews kill Palestinians", Gloria exclaims, "it'll never work!" - and sure enough, peace seems unlikely after it appears that Rafi has accidentally brained Leni's father (Mario Martín) with projectile frozen soup, while David is determined to wreak revenge on the Palestinian "terrorist" for assassinating his pet duck.

With all its mistaken identities, well-intentioned deceptions and frantic running about, 'Only Human' is clearly marked as a farce - but where most farces are concerned with nothing beyond their own madcap power to entertain, this film uses its farcical frame to make palatable the most serious and incendiary of issues, the Jewish-Palestinian dispute. Like the recent

It's Got: Cultural clash, killer soup, and a lame duck in the toilet bowl.

It Needs: The final third to be less meandering.

Alternatives: Meet the Parents, Guess Who, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, 'Some Like It Hot'

Summary: This domestic Spanish farce may not solve the Jewish-Palestinian conflict, but it does offer a hopeful smile for the future. Overall Score: 7 out of 10


Review Date: 5th May 2005


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External Links

Official Web Site
Seres queridos at the IMDB

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