A Jewish girl from north London risks family opprobrium by dating a gentile in a fiesty British comedy that could almost be subtitled My Big Fat Yiddish Wedding.
With her younger sister getting hitched, the pressure is on for Suzie (Summer Phoenix) to follow suit. But the nice Jewish boy that her parents fix her up with is a yuppified berk, forcing her to go outside her faith in order to find romance.
There are plenty of reasons to detest Ric Cantor's film: the now-obligatory Transatlantic star, the script's unabashed parochialism, and the way it confuses coarse ethnic stereotype with broad comic caricature. Yet it's hard to resist a movie filled with such acutely observed local detail, and in Joaquin's little sis it has an immensely likeable lead... Who sports an English accent Gwynnie would be proud of.
It won't toast everyone's bagel, but those who enjoyed Bridget Jones's Diary or Bend It Like Beckham should find plenty to sink their teeth into.
