TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Cem Lamb This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

aFrenchparadox Laura is a pure young woman searching herself between her very orthodox religious background and Kantian philosophy. Then came the discovery of her own desire and sensuality. Though the man she loves cannot authorize himself to take distance with his own background, and hence Laura has to give up her romantic and high expectations, she goes on accepting her desires and taking distance with religion to find an allayed balance. On this path her sister helps her subtly (half conscious of it and above all, being non judgemental) and doing so finds her own way to live her sensuality within religion. A beautifully filmed initiatory path. Where even ugly Parisian suburbs are full of the light brought by Laura's purity. Where development of one member in a family brings development for everybody, because human beings live in network and there is no way your own inner changes have no impact on, at the very least, your relatives.

R. Ignacio Litardo This little gem, while melodramatic, lingers in memory basically by the beauty of images, music and female characters. You get inside their lives, rites, routine, family life, status of each member, machismo, religion vs. reason, sexuality, taboos one would think would have fallen in the XXI century, urban decay, how little philosophy students earn, even in the first world :) and so many other topics that would be tiresome even to read.The film is fun to watch, it's very easy to relate with the characters, from Todeschini's very believable Ariel (!) to of course Zilberstein, one of the most beautiful faces in French cinema and Fanny Valette, simply startling. Aurore Clément exudes classy intelligence, as in all her roles. In here her role is pivotal, albeit small. "Religion is not opposed to pleasure". Thus, she makes things change for good.Elsa did a classy prostitute with a hidden heart in "Tenue correcte exigée" (1997), thus showing here how big is her actoral range. The only aspect I wasn't very convinced of was Djamel, and his family. For starters, I just don't see him as a good romantic partner for spellbinding Laura. Maybe it's that she's more amenable to our western idea of beauty and success at work. He, on the contrary, seems to do nothing but stalk at her at nigh, like a serial killer. We hear he says he was a journalist, but we get to know nothing about him besides he's got a bigot family. And quite stupidly, he takes her without, seemingly, having asked before if she would be accepted. The Arabs are shown as narrow minded as the Jews, only in a more brutish manner. One of the little phrases that matter is Laura's: "What did you do back home". Everybody was "something else" (presumably, better) before coming to a Paris really off the beaten track us tourists love to watch. François Marthouret, a staple of classic French cinema, portrays a very solid philo teacher. Engaging, intelligent, and fun. You really want to enroll in a College course afterwards! I have to admit Kantism seems a tad rigid, but definitely not so asking ourselves the eternal big questions, justice/law vs liberty, how much can we attain by reason alone, what is our "duty" and so one. By the way, I am surprised a College teacher has to wipe floors and clean schools at night shifts for a living in the first of first worlds. Again, the film doesn't shy away from showing real life. But what sets it apart is the vivid portrayal of the Jewish ritual, both the male's (everybody drinking, toddling their altars, including the kids, and drinking Vodka heavily) and female's Mikva (very interesting, water as purification as usual, but with a twist). The other one I liked was the families gathering on Sunday, banging their feet and emitting shrill voices, just like it must have been in the tribes, 2000 years ago. Enlightening, how so much remains the same while only a few things have changed.Enjoy it, and take care of your loved ones! PS: Another aspect I liked was how both Djamel and Laura suffered when they had to repress their feelings, passions or just lust.

ummfatima02 I thought the movie was well done from the beginning. We center on Laura, from the opening scene breaking from the rest of the crowd to pray on her own beside the river. This could be a slight hint at the direction her faith might be taking. Separate, deep concentration, solitary. etc.. WE learn that she has decided to cast away her premonitions of sensual desires as controlling and things best kept at bay. Until we are introduced to the calm and mysterious Djamel. A scene in the locker room. when he covers her slightly bare arm, was as sensual as any sex scene any movie could produce. We see that his intentions are genuine and not harmful. Their relationship is dwindled when reality is thrown in the mix. Laura cannot deny her heritage and religion, no matter how she rebels, and Djamel cannot escape his past which is written all over him. Mathilde's comes back to haunt Laura..."We are all alone." No matter what we may believe to be truth, in the end we are all alone in the results of our decisions.

D A Yes, this movie offers a rare view into the lives of two Jewish sisters living with their family in France, the problem is there is not a whole lot of conviction behind the themes, the whole movie just kind of floats by on its own accord, never really making those connections it wishes to with the main characters. Laura, played by the sensual Fanny Valette does do a good job with her various inner struggles, and paints a respectable, and hardly viewed female archetype, in her character breaking with the traditions of family to seek out her own unique philosophies. Although potentially inspiring to the new generations of strict fundamentalist families, there is nothing depicted in this subtle religious rebellion that was not gone over ten fold with other countries feminist and/or religious fare. The resulting transformations of these two sisters seems rote in comparison, and despite the inclusion of several sex scenes, becomes predictable, tedious, and uninvolved all too quickly. Writer/Director Karin Albou does what she can for her part to retain some authenticity and command of her film but ultimately ends up loosing the viewer do to the underdeveloped script and flawed direction.