| 83 |
Entertainment Weekly
Cheery, expertly constructed Spanish farce.
|
| 80 |
The New Republic
As directors, Harari and De Pelegri have just the right light-fingered glissando touch. Not a moment sags. Their cast relishes and fulfills the tempo.
|
| 80 |
Wall Street Journal
Winningly human, and wonderfully funny.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Tribune
Jessica Reaves
The film's snappy action and frank sexuality are reminiscent of "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown," while the mordant humor and conflicting identities are vintage Allen.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
There's a manic quality to the film that may wear you down. But at least you won't be bored.
|
| 75 |
Boston Globe
A dinner-from-hell comedy about a pretty Jewish Spaniard who brings a nice Palestinian guy home to her outspoken Madrid family.
|
| 75 |
TV Guide
There's nothing subtle about Pelegri and Harari's culture-clash romp, but it's sometimes frantically funny; that it's thoroughly forgettable is an issue only if you expect it to do more than poke easy fun at the thorny issues it raises.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
Moves along briskly, with several laugh-out-loud moments.
|
| 75 |
New York Daily News
The slapstick gets a little too silly, and a rushed ending feels unsatisfying. But everyone whose family boasts an excess of opinions will relate.
|
| 70 |
Salon.com
A movie that is never elegant but is often hysterically funny, and maintains a rabbit-on-speed pace that Hollywood comedy long ago abandoned.
|
| 70 |
Village Voice
Jim Ridley
Intermittently hilarious.
|
| 70 |
The New York Times
Laura Kern
A vigorously paced modern screwball comedy written and directed by the husband-and-wife team Dominic Harari and Teresa De Pelegrí, explores family values, and Leni and Rafi's mismatched cultural backgrounds, with a refreshingly light touch.
|
| 70 |
LA Weekly
Jim Ridley
A Spanish dinner-theater comedy, this intermittently hilarious contraption by the husband-wife team of Dominic Harari and Teresa de Pelegri heaves Jewish-Palestinian conflict onto a prop-room table already groaning with loaded guns, impromptu sex toys, a wounded duck paddling in a bidet, and a brick of frozen soup that doubles as a sandbag for unlucky pedestrians below.
|
| 70 |
Los Angeles Times
Mark Olsen
Mines the comic possibilities of the classic setup of introducing the fiancé to the family, with results that are playful, charming and surprisingly thoughtful.
|
| 70 |
Washington Post
Only Human, a Spanish farce, has absolutely no business being as laugh-out-loud funny as it often is.
|
| 67 |
Portland Oregonian
Despite a strong start, Only Human loses its grip on all that merry energy and comes to feel more like a sitcom than like "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" or "Some Like It Hot," to name just some of its forebears.
|
| 67 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Don't expect a meaningful resolution, just a bouncy comedy with some hilarious moments in the stray ricochets.
|
| 63 |
Miami Herald
Unfortunately, the film is also at times dull, though the scale definitely tilts toward enjoyment. Quality balance aside, who doesn't want to enjoy a few hearty laughs? Only Human provides a few of those.
|
| 60 |
Chicago Reader
Joshua Katzman
Toledo is very funny, and there are some hilarious comic bits, but writer-directors Dominic Harari and Teresa Pelegri drag in several distracting subplots, turning this 2004 Spanish comedy into a scattershot affair.
|
| 58 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
For a film that pads out such broad slapstick with toilet humor, obnoxious-child antics, and even cute-animal business, Only Human is surprisingly enjoyable, thanks to the filmmakers' relatively low-key, Pedro Almodóvar-style approach.
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| 50 |
The Hollywood Reporter
Attempts to achieve a Pedro Almodovar-level of humor without much success... Degenerating into witless slapstick.
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