| Swedish screwballs >> Jalla! Jalla! is a
lightweight Scandinavian by JASON BOGDANERIS
There’s something unmistakable about first features from young auteurs. Like an angst-ridden college kid on a first date, they often try a bit too hard to please and have limited funds with which to impress. First-time writer/director Josef Fares’ Jalla! Jalla! is a typical debut effort in many ways but still lots of fun. Our heroes are a couple of likable slackers who work as human pooper-scoopers by day and unwind with their girlfriends at night. Complications arise when their manhood is questioned by their better halves for two very different reasons. The main character is a 20-something Lebanese immigrant very much under the influence of his well-meaning but suffocating family. Pressured to find a bride and settle down, he hides the fact he has a Swedish girlfriend from his über-traditional clan. His continual excuses for not coming clean make her think he’s still a little boy for not standing up to them. Then things get really interesting when he concocts an ill-advised phony marriage to an Arabic girl to get them off his back. The girl’s overzealous brother puts the wedding plans into overdrive, careening the plot towards its madcap conclusion. His best friend, meanwhile, can no longer get it up in the sack. Attempting everything from consulting a freaky Lebanese witch doctor to half-hearted S&M, he goes off the deep end. Unable to reconcile his identity as a man with his lost virility, he begins to regard his dick as a foreign object. There’s a great scene as he’s told that ducks have sex by simply vibrating against each other. His expression of admiring envy is priceless. The film works best when situations aren’t forced, but allowed to play out at their natural rhythm. A scene where one friend is purchasing a vacuum pump on behalf of his beleaguered buddy could easily have descended into farce. Instead, when he pops his head out of the porno shop with two different models, it’s simply to ask whether he wants to opt for comfort or industrial strength. Much of the film’s humour derives from rational people dealing with absurd situations and acting with as much dignity as possible. Several members of the cast are part of the director’s own family and it shows-in a good way. His dad and uncle appear in the film and fit into the fabric of the story seamlessly. The real gem, however, is the director’s grandmother, who brings a kind of hilarious Osbournes-like quality to the proceedings and may be the funniest thing in the movie. The veteran of over 50 shorts, director Fares obviously has a good sense for the medium despite some roughness around the edges. He set out to make a happy, feel-good movie and has succeeded, thanks to a breezy approach that will resonate with the under 35-set. It remains to be seen whether he’s able to make the leap to more weighty subject matter. : Jalla! Jalla! opens Friday, Aug. 16 at the Cinéma du Parc >> Movie Listings |
