capsule : this super - light situation comedy from sweden tells the story of two close friends with romantic problems .
the script involves formerly taboo subjects like erotic toys and sexual enhancers but otherwise the writing is not a lot different from what is shown free on television .
the characters are paper - thin and the interesting ideas purely non - existent .
this is a decrement - life - by-90-minutes card .
, 0 ( -4 to +4 ) jalla !
jalla !
is basically an exuberant tv situation comedy written instead for the wide screen .
it tells the story of two park custodians and the problems they are finding on the path to true love .
the film is set in sweden where roro and mans ( fares fares and torkel petersson ) are custodians at a public park .
roro is from a tightly knit lebanese family who control him very closely , mans is a swede from a much more liberal background .
they spend most of the day in the bushes at their park , cleaning up after dogs .
roro and mans each have girlfriends , but each has a problem .
roro ( nicknamed " jalla " ) is having family problems .
it seems that his family wants to arrange a marriage between him and a nice lebanese woman , yasmin ( laleh pourkarim ) , but he is already in love with lisa ( tuva novotny ) .
yasmin likes roro , but does not want to get married either .
mans on the other hand has been having a problem of sexual impotence .
the two friends worry about their problems and discuss the problems with each other .
mans thinks the answer to his problem is to purchase sexual enhancers .
the one catch is that he is too shy to go in and buy them .
roro and yasmin decide to give themselves some time by telling the families that they want to marry each other , but then plan to break up before the wedding .
not too surprisingly neither finds that his idea works out the way he quite expected .
the plot turns in several places are contrived .
one knows fairly quickly that if things are going to work our happily for everybody certain plot contrivances have to happen .
lebanese - born josef fares who wrote and directed is perhaps a better director than he is a writer .
when things start to get slow , he just adds throws in another story .
for example halfway into the film mans innocently antagonizes some local toughs and a long chase is added to the film .
characterization is a little better with roro than it is with mans who does not seem to have a whole lot more personality beyond fear for losing a biological function .
we do see some of roro 's family life and his concerns .
that may be because roro 's background is a lot like that of the director .
while the story was entertaining , i did not feel that i got anything worthwhile from the film .
it was just a way to pass about an hour and a half in my life .
one does not have to go to the movies to see entertainment like this .
i rate it a 4 on the 0 to 10 scale and a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale .
the characters are paper - thin and the interesting ideas purely non - existent contrived plot contrivances i did not feel that i got anything worthwhile