I'm giving this six latkes, and I usually rate Hallmark holiday films five, and the past "Jewish attempts" closer to four. Hallmark holiday films are typically formulaic, with trite scripts and dialog. The script and dialog were markedly improved with this outing, and with better casting, this could have been great. I'm very pleased that the gentiles who watched enjoyed it, and were charmed by the accurate Jewish quirkiness; as with Mrs. Maisel, that makes us feel more loved and less alone in America. The casting was not on point, though. As an American Israeli, I really want to love Groblas, but her American accent is worse than Gal Gadot's - and that's saying something. She is really bad in this role. I didn't look it up, but as a Jew, both sets of parents do not appear via physical traits or seem by their mannerisms (or lack of hand gestures) to be played by Jewish actors - if anything, this is the Aryan-nation-Jewface casting that repeats the mistakes of Mrs. Maisel instead of correcting them. Why not cast an actual American Jew, like Sarah Silverman? There are tons of Jewish no-name actors to play the parents. Jewish or no, the grandmothers were ON POINT, but the fact that only. Jordan consistently pronounced bubbe correctly (it's BUH-BEE, and saying BOOBY is obnoxious!) was jarring and the use of the word was so frequent, given the plot line, that it felt like there wasn't a single American Jew on set to give the non-Jews their two cents and a smack on the tuchus. If you'll forgive the bad pun. I realize the world doesn't want to accept that Jewface is the same as Blackface, and will insist that 'acting' can make even Michelle WIlliams appear Jewish. OY YOI YOI - it is embarrassingly bad. It really is just as bad as RDJ in blackface in Tropic Thunder - it's just that, apparently, only Jews can see it. And if you can't see how this, M. Williams and Maisel are exaggerated gentiles in dress-up, then it's like you don't truly see us at all. Try casting Jewish actors next time, across the board. If we actually run Hollywood, how hard could that be?
This was better than the other Hallmark dreck, but...isn't it possible to do WELL? I could make a better latke than any of these ppl even dreamed of, blindfolded.
