Reuniting The Rubins

One to avoid at all costs, 'Reuniting The Rubins' is a clumsy, poorly-cast 'comedy' that lacks laughs, emotion or any believable chemistry. Quite how it got a cinematic release is beyond us.

The hype…
There isn't any. London-based commercials director Yoav Factor turns his hand to directing in this mediocre looking comedy drama. He's pulled in a few decent actors in Timothy Spall and Honor Blackman, but the fact this film's been on the shelf for so long before getting a release does not bode well.

The story…
Lenny Rubins (Timothy Spall) is about to go on his dream holiday: a vastly expensive cruise that he's been looking forward to for years. But after a health scare, his elderly mother (Honor Blackman) emotionally blackmails her son into reuniting his children for the Jewish holiday of Pesach.

The problem is that his own children are a difficult bunch.

Andie (Rhona Mitra) is a freedom fighter, helping communities in Africa battle corporate bigwigs, bigwigs like her brother Danny (James Callis) who runs his electronics business with a ruthless business acumen, and little mind for those he hurts.

Lenny's other two children are far more spiritual than their siblings, although Yona (Hugh O'Conor) is a devout Rabbi who is closely attuned to his Jewish heritage, and younger brother Clarity (Asier Newman) is a Buddhist monk.

The breakdown…
This is writer director Yoav Factor's feature debut, and it shows. He enjoyed success with commercials and one short film, but on the big screen his material flounders so painfully and comprehensively that it is difficult to understand quite how it ever got a release.

For the first part, it's an incredibly Jewish comedy with a largely British cast. There are no Larry Davids, Jerry Seinfelds or even a Sacha Baron Cohen to ham up the religious element as the script so clearly demands, and as it result there is zero chemistry and every joke, character and relationship feels utterly fake. I mean, who could seriously buy uber-English Timothy Spall as an exasperated, put-upon Jewish patriarch?

This isn't helped by the groan-inducing silliness of the setup. The 'oddball' family of opposites is such an uninspired angle that it's difficult to get excited about any of the logjams the group gets into, and the shoehorned-in conflicts creak and clunk their way through the motions and into predictable, laugh-free conclusions.

Quite how Timothy Spall and Honor Blackman sunk to these depths is beyond us, but it's quite clear that they're lost in Factor's rambling, unfunny script. There is no sense of comic timing, and no conviction behind their (or any other) performances. So much so that one has to wonder what Factor was doing on the set the whole time.

He certainly wasn't focussing on creating quality cinematography with his lens-man Miles Cook, whose visuals have all the ill-fitted trappings of cod-professionalism that you'd expect from a college graduation film.

Even the 'heart-warming conclusion' that should be the reliable staple of this mundane fare is somehow botched up with layer upon layer of ridiculous plot twists building to a conclusion that tests suspension of disbelief beyond even the most trite Christmas schmaltz-fest.

The verdict…
One of the worst films of the year by a long chalk, this attempt at heart-warming comedy falls flat in the casting, camera and laugh departments. Come to think of it, there's not much it succeeds in at all.

Rating: 0.5/5

'Reuniting The Rubins' is due to be released in the UK on 21 October. Certificate: PG