Reuniting the Rubins

A very funny film from Yoav Factor - though roughly enjoyable all round family entertainment, that anyone with siblings and ageing parents can identify with. Honour Blackman's portrayal of an elderly Jewish mother is excellent. A genuinely heart warming film with lots of funny moments and a touching storyline. Whilst Timothy Spall, puts in an excellent performance, Rhona is excellent as the daughter and I felt that the role of the Rabbi was a hysterically funny. I particularly liked the fact Yoav did not work with a predominantly Jewish Cast for this film. Overall this was a great first attempt by an aspiring new director and well worth a viewing if you understand the dynamics and you are from a large family.

Grandmother Rubin has bought the family home where they all grew up. She wants her four grandchildren to come for Seder. When they finally show up for their grandmother and for their father, they don't rise to the occasion. They fight non stop. These kids are 40 something. They grew up in a lovely house, but none of them took care of it. The house is a wreck. The two other sons are religious fanatics; one an obsessive rabbi, and the other a guru who gives people words of wisdom. One great-grandchild is neglected and offers his father money to spend time with him. After witnessing her grandchildren fight, she blesses each of them. She goes upstairs to bed and by morning she has died. The guru's wife goes into labor. The father, keeps repeating, "They are too different to get along." No, they are too selfish to get along. They all want to do what they want to do and will never change. All situations in this film are depicting unpleasant people being themselves. I call that a documentary.

Great film, great cast, lovely story, loved it. I watched this film as a lapsed catholic (not that that has any bearings on it) and knowing very little about the Jewish world. I found the film pretty funny, one or two places it pushed into Jewish themes which I didn't really get but that didn't matter as was laughing all the way through. Cast were stellar and there is one line written by Yoav Factor that will make your heart melt delivered by James Callis. I can imagine that this director has been through some journey to ge this to screen. Overall a sterling effort on what was a pretty small budget. A worthy British film that should catch on with it's global family themes.

I took my family to watch this movie and all of us left the cinema feeling positively uplifted and that much closer as a family unit. I have to say that this is not the type of movie I would usually go to watch so I was pleasantly surprised by this thoroughly enjoyable movie. It is a great performance all round from the whole crew, the film was very well casted and has some fantastic actors, the soundtrack is really good and I am looking forward to watching Yoav Factor's next film. All in all the movie promotes fantastic family moral values in a highly entertaining and humorous way. I thoroughly recommend this film to all audiences, especially families and will most likely watch it a number of times myself.

The balance between characters and family dynamics is integrally shaped to reveal the struggles, hopes and aspirations of family life in modern times. A father sets out to engage his grown children only to find that time has moved on. Time has revealed a divergent set of character traits within the family, making reunion an interesting and feisty experience. A blend of subtle humor and underlying tensions invoke moments of joy and angst, persistently generic to family life. Unique characteristics of the Rubin families makes reunion though an interesting and captivating ride. The production colorfully mixes location and context with flow to ensure a coherent delivery of semantic meaning and purpose.