On Demand Weekly

THE INFIDEL - Tribeca Film On VODApril 29, 2010

Tribeca Film

The 2010 Tribeca Film Festival has begun in New York City. New this year is a selection of films available to watch the same day on VOD.

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: The Infidel. (available on demand simultaneously with screenings at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.)

You may have heard of The Infidel after it made waves in the UK because of its “culturally sensitive” subject matter. Have no fear, this is no heavy drama filled with loaded meaning. It’s a big, broad, bawdy comedy about a Muslim minicab driver living a typical life in East London who discovers after the death of his mother that he was adopted and was in fact born Jewish.

Yes Mahmud Nasir was first “Solly Shimshillewitz.” (all we need is a soul switch and I smell a Razzie award) This new information impacts his state of mind, his marriage and his son’s marriage-to-be as the fiancee’s family contains a radical Muslim cleric from Pakistan who will make the final judgement – meaning Mahmud is tasked with being the best Muslim he can be right when he discovers he might have to learn to be a Jew.

The film stars Omid Djalili, a popular British comic of Iranian descent who has been in everything from Gladiator to the NBC sitcom Whoopi. Supporting cast includes Richard Schiff (The West Wing) as a Jewish-American cab driver and flawed mentor along with the very attractive Archie Panjabi (Bend it Like Beckham) as Mahmud’s loving but increasingly suspicious wife. Matt Lucas, the genius chameleon from Little Britain also appears (all too briefly) as a hairless Rabbi.

The supporting cast performs well - though completely to type - so The Infidel falls on the shoulders of Djalili who carries it from beginning to end with his sympathetic, likeable presence and expressive charisma.

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