East is East

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Get your titles straight -- this is the good one, and a roaring good time.

Dallas Observer M. V. Moorhead

There is some meandering, episodic raggedness to the plotting, but Khan-Din's dialogue has a fine, naturalistic flow, and the young, debuting director O'Donnell, who's neither English nor Pakistani but Irish, skillfully keeps the material from showing too clearly its theatrical origins.

Film.com Peter Brunette

We've seen the clash of cultures and generations before,--- but never quite so humorously. This time, the focus is on the Pakistanis living in England, and it's quite amazingly done, perky and inventive to the core.

Time Richard Schickel

The actor (Puri) and the film make something fine, winning and memorable.

USA Today Staff [Not Credited]

A robust family comedy that saves its wildest moments for a climactic "get-together."

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

He (Puri) is one of the most consistently excellent film actors that his country - or the world - has produced. And East is East, a grand cultural hybrid, is a real movie, too - raw, funny and wonderfully mixed up.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

East Is East is "The Full Monty" of 2000, a fresh, funny and poignant film filled with sparkling performances.

San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson

May be the funniest movie about parental and spousal abuse ever made.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Examines Muslim family's religious warfare.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

An edgy, irreverent, thoroughly winning comedy.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

The proceedings are leavened also with a carefree sense of humor -- including some clever, jokey camera work -- and given depth by a cache of marvelous performances.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

Largely a showcase for Puri, and he rises to the occasion with a performance that bursts from the screen and tears into your heart.

Variety Derek Elley

A sprightly acted, warm and often extremely funny ensemble comedy.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

Stars the cult celebrity Om Puri, widely considered by cinephiles to be one of the best actors in the world.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

If there is a weakness in East Is East, it's that Om Puri's character is a little too serious for the comedy surrounding him.

Miami Herald Curtis Morgan

O'Donnell has a fine eye for the small details of life and the movie feels rich, warm and real .

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

At its simplest level, East Is East is a broad comedy, but Puri's acting, so honest and heartbreaking, gives the film weight.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Bounces between funny and chilling.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

This engaging ensemble comedy that could have been called ''Father Doesn't Know Best.''

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Above all a man's confrontation with self in middle-age and his need to accept the fact that his children, beyond their mixed ancestry, are after all native-born English citizens.

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

Plays like "The Honeymooners" might have if Ralph Kramden were from Pakistan, but with less laughs and more ignorant spite.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

A movie in which the easy socio-racial paradoxes have been diagrammed with more care than the relationships

Austin Chronicle Bryan Poyser

A pleasure to watch for the cast alone and their accomplishments should not be obscured by underwritten characters and overwritten jokey set-pieces.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Mixes broad humor with a surprisingly subtle portrait of a family pulled in a bewildering variety of directions.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Unwisely bills itself as a comedy.

Chicago Reader Ronnie Scheib

Far less insulting to Pakistanis or Mancunians than it is to its audience.