David & Layla (2008)

Critic Reviews

• Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle

  Jay Jonroy, who wrote and directed David & Layla, has come up with some potentially funny material that doesn't quite work.

• Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic

  David and Layla is proof, if proof be needed, that good intentions just aren't enough.

• Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

  David and Layla isn't going to solve any problems -- it's got way too many of its own.

• Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter

  Writer-director Jay Jonroy is better with atmosphere and visuals than with dialogue.

• Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

  Inspired by a real-life couple now living in Paris, David & Layla is suffused with the warmth and passion of filmmaker Jay Jonroy, whose own family was victimized under Saddam Hussein.

• Tom Long, Detroit News

  Yes, it's well-intentioned and at times funny. But it's also strained and clumsy and a bit too simple-minded to be effective.

• Harvey S. Karten, Film Journal International

  The picture takes its time in developing momentum; once attained, it becomes a watchable, optimistic cri de coeur.

• Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide's Movie Guide

  The road to formulaic romantic-comedy complications and ethic clichés is paved with good intentions in first-time filmmaker Jay Jonroy's cross-culture love story, which might as well be called My Big Fat Kurdish Wedding.

• Kam Williams, NewsBlaze

  My Big Fat Muslim Wedding!

• Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times

  Anyone can grasp the issues explored in Jonroy's comedy, and occasional missteps are easily forgiven when something new (along with a feast of great-looking food) is being brought to the table.

• William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

  A spread-thin but likable concoction that sets out to be a cross-ethnic romance, an explicit sex farce, a sober statement of the plight of the Kurdish people and, I think, a plea for world peace.

• Frank Swietek, One Guy's Opinion

  So clumsily made that even its hopeful message can't make it go down pleasantly.

• Tim Cogshell, Boxoffice Magazine

  Rather than a real drama about these things, David & Layla plays like '70s-era sitcom.

• Marta Barber, Miami Herald

  Humor and politics finally converge in what the story is all about: finding the good in those different from you. It's a happy ending that can be enjoyed by all.

• Jim Hemphill, Reel.com

  The effect is not a rich film with a wide range of tones as the director may have intended, but a schizophrenic mess that ends up working as neither social message movie nor entertainment.

• Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly

  This is more suffering than should be asked of anyone to endure, but with admirable perversity, Jonroy decided to make a romantic comedy based on the love between an American Jew and a Kurdish Muslim woman whom the writer-director met in Paris.

Read all 16 critic reviews