Review of The Infidel (2010) by Daniel A — 23 Dec 2010

With its TV-friendly cast and a style of humour better suited to the British sitcom rather than the big screen, The Infidel has its drawbacks. However at the heart of this film there's an important question being asked: Can't we all just get along?

Racial comedy is a lucrative business. The Infidel star Omid Djalili has built an entire career on it; playing off his Middle-Eastern roots and combining them with his middle-class British upbringing has led to a unique style of stand-up comedy that's helped him land his own BBC primetime series and a number of sell-out tours. Not only that, but he also has quite the impressive Hollywood résumé. If you thought he seemed familiar but didn't know why then you may well have seen him in The Mummy, Gladiator, Sex and the City 2 or Pirates of the Caribbean. However he finally steps into the lead role in this gently amusing comedy about a British Muslim who discovers he was adopted as a baby, and is actually Jewish. Naturally he now has to overcome the great divide between these two groups, and find a happy medium somewhere in the middle.

Cue the endless tight-fisted, big-nosed Jew clichés and Koran-bashing, big-bearded Muslim jokes. Neither side gets away scot-free, but impressively The Infidel is never malevolent in its ribbing of these ethnic and religious groups. David Baddiel's screenplay may be foul-mouthed but its sensitive about the issues that count, and leaves enough room for Djalili to inject it with some much needed comedy; fans of the comic will see traces of his standup routine stamped all over his performance.

Predictably this film has drawn a number of comparisons to fellow British Muslim-based comedy Four Lions. However the films are actually very different. While I preferred The Infidel, Four Lions is cinematically the better of the two. Its religious satire is far more effective, and the laughs come harder and more regularly than they do here. Where The Infidel triumphs is its message, which is important no matter who you are. In comparison I found Four Lions quite a disturbing film in its way, though comical it brings the issue of terrorist attack in the UK to the fore, and no matter how funny the jokes are, I found myself not really wanting to laugh. Thus The Infidel proved a more enjoyable film to watch thanks to Djalili's high-energy performance, a smattering of funny moments, and an old but important message that we should all heed.