Rating: 
Summary: More Real Life than Movies
Review: It's a movie, but you feel like rather than a script, you are seeing real life. Not a hollywood film where love triumphs and you get what you expect where the Hero gets the gril. Nothing is black and white.. Everyone wins, everyone loses. You'll be thinking about this for days.
Rating:
Summary: Late Marriage
Review: LATE MARRIAGE is a fascinating and refreshing look at love and courtship in contemporary Tel Aviv, Israel. Free of politics and the current tragedy being played out in the streets, the movie is a raucous, honest and sexually explicit portrayal of the love of a 31-year-old Georgian immigrant for a Moroccan-Isreali single mother three years his senior. Her "advanced" age and previous marriage make her unacceptable to his family. According to cultural tradition, he must marry a younger woman. After arranging several unsuccessful blind dates, his parents become suspicious, and discover the hero's relationship with his "undesireable" lover. What follows is both funny and tragic, leading to a conclusion that is, at best, bittersweet. The dialogue and the depiction of the lovers' relationship leaves nothing to the imagination, yet this is less about sex and more about love, passion and ancient traditon. Some of the actors are amateurs (the parents of the hero are portrayed by the director's real-life parents), but the main performances are well acted. I would definitely recommend this film as an alternative to the usual summer fare, but be warned: given the frankness of the subject, it's not a "first date" movie for the unworldy.
Rating:
Summary: An Eye-Opening Glimpse of Georgian Jews in Israel
Review: This Israeli comedy gave me a taste of the culture brought to Israel by Jews from Soviet Georgia. We would find it appalling but it is genuine. A handsome young man, eldest son, raised in Israel by Georgian immigrants, has completed his Army service and continued with his advanced studies. Now, at age 31, he is working towards his Ph.D. in Philosophy. By modern secular Israeli standards, this is not unusual. But to his Georgian parents, it is a disgrace and they try repeatedly to fix him up with girls from Georgian families - even one as young as 17. When the parents uncover his secret, that he is intimately involved with a pretty divorcee who has a young daughter, they go into shock. She is Israeli, Jewish, but not Georgian, and divorce is unheard of in their culture. They converge upon her en masse (the extended family, which resembles the Mafia) and threaten to kill her if she doesn't get out of their son's life. To their son, they threaten to cut him off and not pay for the completion of his education. It is shocking that such barbaric behavior continues, but taking it in the spirit it was intended, to expose a dying sub-culture, let us enjoy it for what it is. Caution: One very steamy sex scene. For Mature audiences.
Rating:
Summary: An Eye-Opening Glimpse of Georgian Jews in Israel
Review: This Israeli comedy gave me a taste of the culture brought to Israel by Jews from Soviet Georgia. We would find it appalling but it is genuine. Zaza, the handsome son of Georgian immigrants, grew up in Israel, completed his Army service, and continued on with advanced studies. Now, at age 31, he is working towards his Ph.D. in Philosophy. By modern secular Israeli standards, this is not unusual. But to his Georgian parents, it is a disgrace that he is still not married, and they try repeatedly to fix him up with girls from Georgian families - even one as young as 17. When the parents uncover his secret, that he is intimately involved with a pretty divorcee who has a young daughter, they go into shock. She is Israeli, Jewish, but not Georgian, and divorce is unheard of in their culture. They converge upon her en masse (the extended family, which resembles the Mafia) and threaten to kill her if she doesn't get out of their son's life. To their son, they threaten to cut him off and not pay for the completion of his education. It is shocking that such barbaric behavior continues, but taking it in the spirit it was intended, to expose a dying sub-culture, let us enjoy it for what it is. Caution: One very steamy sex scene. For Mature audiences.
Rating: 
Summary: story telling in its purest form
Review: This movie is a pleasure to watch. Stroy-telling without gimmicks ... no special effects, no chronology jumps, no split screens. Just a wonderful story told through brilliant acting, directing and writing. The arranged marriage sequence in the beginning is truly amazing ... hilarious and tense.
Rating:
Summary: A story told the way it is...
Review: Zaza is a 31 year old Ph.D. student in Philosophy. His parents want him to get married soon. To this end, they've arrange meetings for their son to get acquainted with girls of Georgian descent. A successful match to them would be a substantially younger virgin Georgian girl. However, Zaza has his sights set on someone else. He is in love with a 34 year old divorcee named Judith (she also has a daughter). To Zaza's parents, Judith is damaged goods and a relationship between their son and her is a disgrace. They then take extreme measures to make sure this relationship ends. One night, the entire extended family pays a visit to her. Zaza's uncle threatens to kill her if she doesn't get out of Zaza's life. His father revokes Zaza's credit card and threatens to stop providing financial support for him to complete his education. Judith understands that it will be impossible for her and Zaza to be together (although she repeatedly prays for his love to burn only for her). So she takes the more mature approach (which later brings Zaza's mother to tears) and calls it off with Zaza. In a very poignant scene the day after the accostal, Zaza's mother comes back to talk to Judith (and also brings a large stuffed animal for the daughter as a conciliatory gesture). They talk and Judith accepts her judgment putting Zaza's mother to shame. "She's a good girl" according to the mother. Now Zaza has no choice but to choose a wife (he picked a pretty one I might add) and marry her. During the reception, he tries to cause a scene. In a very clever stroke of scripting, the tables are turned on him and we are left to assume that life goes on and another generation of fixed-marriage remains intact. To me this film is very powerful and raw in what it's trying to achieve. The director wants us to see, in all its gory/gratuitous details, what Israeli life is like. There are no smoke and mirrors, no time lapses. What you see is what you get, and it really makes a statement to the audience. When I was watching the film, particularly during the sex scene, I was thinking "What an honest, realistic, raw way to portray real life!" And that's what this film is all made with - honesty. So before you go on expecting this film to be a Hollywood love story, I suggest you ask yourself whether you are ready to handle a two-hour cultural immersion into the Israeli life. If so, watch it. If not, go watch something more lighthearted like My Big Fat Greek Wedding. LEAP rating (each out of 5):
============================
L (Language) - 3.5 (bare-bones dialogue but appropriate for the tone being set)
E (Erotica) - 5 (includes a very realistic/raw sex scene)
A (Action) - 0 (n/a)
P (Plot) - 4 (31 yr. old Israeli male in love with an older divorcee, but parents force him to look for a younger, unmarried wife)
Rating:
Summary: A story told the way it is...
Review: Zaza is a 31 year old Ph.D. student in Philosophy. His parents want him to get married soon. To this end, they've arrange meetings for their son to get acquainted with girls of Georgian descent. A successful match to them would be a substantially younger virgin Georgian girl. However, Zaza has his sights set on someone else. He is in love with a 34 year old divorcee named Judith (she also has a daughter). To Zaza's parents, Judith is damaged goods and a relationship between their son and her is a disgrace. They then take extreme measures to make sure this relationship ends. One night, the entire extended family pays a visit to her. Zaza's uncle threatens to kill her if she doesn't get out of Zaza's life. His father revokes Zaza's credit card and threatens to stop providing financial support for him to complete his education. Judith understands that it will be impossible for her and Zaza to be together (although she repeatedly prays for his love to burn only for her). So she takes the more mature approach (which later brings Zaza's mother to tears) and calls it off with Zaza. In a very poignant scene the day after the accostal, Zaza's mother comes back to talk to Judith (and also brings a large stuffed animal for the daughter as a conciliatory gesture). They talk and Judith accepts her judgment putting Zaza's mother to shame. "She's a good girl" according to the mother. Now Zaza has no choice but to choose a wife (he picked a pretty one I might add) and marry her. During the reception, he tries to cause a scene. In a very clever stroke of scripting, the tables are turned on him and we are left to assume that life goes on and another generation of fixed-marriage remains intact. To me this film is very powerful and raw in what it's trying to achieve. The director wants us to see, in all its gory/gratuitous details, what Israeli life is like. There are no smoke and mirrors, no time lapses. What you see is what you get, and it really makes a statement to the audience. When I was watching the film, particularly during the sex scene, I was thinking "What an honest, realistic, raw way to portray real life!" And that's what this film is all made with - honesty. So before you go on expecting this film to be a Hollywood love story, I suggest you ask yourself whether you are ready to handle a two-hour cultural immersion into the Israeli life. If so, watch it. If not, go watch something more lighthearted like My Big Fat Greek Wedding. LEAP rating (each out of 5):
============================
L (Language) - 3.5 (bare-bones dialogue but appropriate for the tone being set)
E (Erotica) - 5 (includes a very realistic/raw sex scene)
A (Action) - 0 (n/a)
P (Plot) - 4 (31 yr. old Israeli male in love with an older divorcee, but parents force him to look for a younger, unmarried wife)
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