Review: The Infidel

Omid Djalili has carved out quite a large career in films starring in The Mummy, Gladiator and the third Pirates of The Caribbean film to name just a few. However he has never taken the lead role before but that all changes with the new British comedy The Infidel. Djalili plays Mahmud Nasir a cab driver who finds out he was born a Jew and in order to see his birth father has to learn what it is to be a Jew. He join forces with his former nemesis a Jewish black cab driver, Lenny Goldberg, as Lenny teaches Mahmud about Judaism at the same time Mahmud also has to deal with the fact that his son is marrying the stepdaughter of an extremist Muslim. Of course these two plots collide as the film goes on as Mahmud learns about identity and family.

An interesting combination of British humour and religious satire, The Infidel is incredibly funny and warm. David Baddiel is easily able to write about his own Jewish faith and the scenes in which Lenny teaches Mahmud about Jewish cultureare some of the funniest in the film, as is an arkward scene at a Bar Mitzvah. While the scenes depicting the Muslim families are more generic they are still as funny. Where the film falls down is the overall plot, Baddiel has trouble tying all the lose ends together and presenting a situation where Mahmud and his family end up on top. Djalili is an easily likeable presence in the lead he plays the everyman very well and that's what Mahmud basically is. He shares a chemistry with everyone on screen especially The West Wing's Richard Schiff as Lenny. Schiff and Djalili might seem like an odd pair but they bounce off each other easily and it seems like a stroke of genius to put them together. There are also some nice cameos from British comedy stars such as Matt Lucas, Miranda Hart and David Schneider while there are not one but two ex-Eastenders stars.

Overall a very funny and warm film but one that suffers from a clumsy plot structure and too much of a conventional ending.