Mahmud Nasir (Omid Djalili) has lived his life as a Muslim, although he’s hardly devout. He’s what they call a “relaxed” Muslim – a believer in Allah and a supporter of Palestine, but not exactly strict when it comes to Islamic traditions. He’s a husband, a father, and an all-around decent working man living a comfortably modern, westernized existence in England. As he clears out the house of his recently deceased mother, he makes a startling discovery: He was adopted. A trip to an adoption agency yields an even more startling discovery: He’s actually Jewish, Solomon Shimshillewitz being his birth name. Suddenly in the depths of an identity crisis, his life becomes complicated by events of conflicting ideology. One is his son’s engagement to the stepdaughter of a Muslim cleric. The other is his attempt to meet his biological father, who lies dying in a nursing home.
 
What makes “The Infidel” funny is that both events depend on how seriously he takes his faith. If he isn’t Muslim enough, his son won’t be allowed to marry the cleric’s stepdaughter. If he isn’t Jewish enough, he won’t be allowed to meet his biological father. What makes the movie smart is that behind the laughter and the sitcom contrivances lies a hopeful message, although I’m not sure if it’s of mutual tolerance or of finding one’s identity. Take your pick. What prevents it from being a great film is a cleverly constructed but ill-fitting twist ending inspired by the life of Cat Stevens; yes, it has thematic resonance, but judging by the way it plays out, it doesn’t seem symbolic so much as manipulative, as if it were the ending of a “Scooby-Doo” cartoon. This ultimately does more to undermine the point than prove it.
 
Still, just about everything leading up to the ending is engaging, a successful blend of heart, humor, and social commentary. There are setups of pure comedic genius, such as when Mahmud must in the course of one day attend both a Palestinian protest rally and a bar mitzvah; to accommodate both, he wears a yarmulke directly underneath his taqiyah. There’s also the scene taking place the morning after he learns of his Jewish heritage; out of sheer panic, he imagines his family constantly saying the word “Jew,” as in, “There’s too much Jew in this tea. Did I say tea? I meant Jew.” When he’s at the bar mitzvah, he’s drawn into telling a story up on stage, one that seems to be going nowhere but ends with everyone in the room laughing. So then he naturally possesses a Jew’s sense of humor. Right?

An interesting friendship develops between Mahmud and a divorced, bitter Jewish-American cabbie named Lenny Goldberg (Richard Schiff), who Mahmud appeals to in an effort to learn how to be more Jewish. The interesting thing is that, at the start, the two are enemies, divided not only by ideology, but also by the stereotypes neither seem to exhibit. Lenny, like Mahmud, is fairly relaxed about his religion, so his “teaching” is fairly unconventional. If anything, his lessons are more about cliché attitudes and behaviors, like learning how to say “oy,” or shrugging indifferently, or dancing like Topol in “Fiddler on the Roof” (half of Lenny’s VHS copy was taped over by porn, but that’s clearly off the topic). In spite of their comedy, there’s a surprising tenderness to both characters, which allows the film’s message to come across without becoming too sentimental.
 
Mahmud eventually finds himself at odds with the devout and politically outspoken Muslim cleric Arshad El Masri (Yigal Naor), whose stepdaughter just happens to be engaged to Mahmud’s son, Rashid (Amit Shah). At first, it’s purely an internal struggle, and there’s more to it than the secret of his Jewish heritage; Mahmud, being “relaxed,” has never agreed with El Masri’s conservative views. He is, however, willing to play the part for the sake of his son’s happiness. Soon, the struggle becomes literal, and while I’d like to elaborate, I’m afraid too much would be given away. Let it suffice to say Mahmud knows something about El Masri, something no one else knows.
 
With this, I return to the subject of the twist ending, a miscalculation that isn’t grave but is certainly harmful. It’s a scene of manufactured, almost farcical satire, which would have been fine had the film been founded on the same principles. But it wasn’t; we were finding humor in a remote but nonetheless plausible situation, and we were given characters of amazing depth and complexity. The tone of the ending is so far removed from what led up to it that I’m at a loss to say why director Josh Appignanesi and writer David Baddiel thought it would work. Were it not for this, “The Infidel” truly would have been a great movie – funny, insightful, and socially relevant. As it stands, it’s a good movie that unfortunately got sidetracked by its own cleverness.

- Chris Pandolfi

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