Jay Jonroy, who wrote and directed David & Layla, has come up with some potentially funny material that doesn't quite work.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 7, 2008

The picture takes its time in developing momentum; once attained, it becomes a watchable, optimistic cri de coeur.

| Feb 19, 2008

The road to formulaic romantic-comedy complications and ethic clichs is paved with good intentions in first-time filmmaker Jay Jonroy's cross-culture love story, which might as well be called My Big Fat Kurdish Wedding.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 15, 2008

My Big Fat Muslim Wedding!

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 11, 2008

Anyone can grasp the issues explored in Jonroy's comedy, and occasional missteps are easily forgiven when something new (along with a feast of great-looking food) is being brought to the table.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 5, 2007

A spread-thin but likable concoction that sets out to be a cross-ethnic romance, an explicit sex farce, a sober statement of the plight of the Kurdish people and, I think, a plea for world peace.

| Original Score: B- | Oct 4, 2007

So clumsily made that even its hopeful message can't make it go down pleasantly.

| Original Score: C- | Sep 28, 2007

David and Layla is proof, if proof be needed, that good intentions just aren't enough.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Sep 20, 2007

David and Layla isn't going to solve any problems -- it's got way too many of its own.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 31, 2007

Rather than a real drama about these things, David & Layla plays like '70s-era sitcom.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 30, 2007

Humor and politics finally converge in what the story is all about: finding the good in those different from you. It's a happy ending that can be enjoyed by all.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 3, 2007

Writer-director Jay Jonroy is better with atmosphere and visuals than with dialogue.

Full Review | Aug 3, 2007

The effect is not a rich film with a wide range of tones as the director may have intended, but a schizophrenic mess that ends up working as neither social message movie nor entertainment.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 3, 2007

Inspired by a real-life couple now living in Paris, David & Layla is suffused with the warmth and passion of filmmaker Jay Jonroy, whose own family was victimized under Saddam Hussein.

| Aug 2, 2007

Yes, it's well-intentioned and at times funny. But it's also strained and clumsy and a bit too simple-minded to be effective.

| Jul 20, 2007

There is nothing poetic about it.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 20, 2007

Though it's no Romeo and Juliet, David & Layla is an offbeat cross-cultural romance with a positive message.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 19, 2007

This is more suffering than should be asked of anyone to endure, but with admirable perversity, Jonroy decided to make a romantic comedy based on the love between an American Jew and a Kurdish Muslim woman whom the writer-director met in Paris.

Full Review | Jul 19, 2007

An earnest, frequently funny comedy about stateless persons and the looming cliches that make Muslims and Jews so wary of each other. Completely accessible and non-threatening.

Full Review | Jun 16, 2007