WHEN DO WE EAT?

When Do We Eat? is a surprisingly funny and touching film that will resonate with anyone who's ever endured a dysfunctional holiday dinner with the fam.

We're all accustomed to being let down by movies with zippy packaging and exciting taglines, but When Do We Eat? is one of those rare gems that sounds awful and turns out to be pleasantly entertaining. I must admit that a movie about a Seder led by someone on psychedelic drugs sounded about as much fun as watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on Christmas morning, but I was wrong. When Do We Eat? is a surprisingly funny and touching film that will resonate with anyone who's ever endured a dysfunctional holiday dinner with the fam.

As Ira Stuckman (Michael Lerner) desperately calls his children in search of someone willing to shop for matzoh on Passover, we begin to meet our motley cast of characters. There's Nikki the unconventional sex therapist, Zeke the recreational drug user, Jennifer the wisecracking lesbian, and Jennifer's African-American partner, Grace. Lionel is the idiot savant of the family, and former golden boy Ethan (Max Greenfield) has recently abandoned his career to become a Hassidic Jew. At his insistence, his mother, Peggy (Lesley Ann Warren), has gone out of her way to conduct a Kosher Seder. With the help of Raffi, a sweaty, eyepatch-wearing man with a heavy accent, she erected a tent in the backyard, and for good measure she invited Raffi to share the evening with them. Throw in flirty cousin Vanessa and Holocaust survivor Grandpa Artur (Jack Klugman), and you've got one VERY full table.

Despite the fact that the Stuckmans dutifully gather to celebrate holidays, there are a number of problems festering just below the surface. Ira's father resents that he chose to make Christmas ornaments instead of continuing the family hat business, and now Ira resents Ethan for not wanting to work for the Christmas ornament company. Jennifer is Ira's daughter from his first marriage, and she's always felt separate from the rest of the family. Pretty much everyone at the table has a beef with someone else, and Ira has learned to avoid conflict by running the world's fastest Seder. Everything changes when Zeke slips a tab of X into his father's Maalox.

The Seder continues at a snail's pace after Zeke reveals what he's done. This allows room for introspection, communication, and healing, but everyone at the table would rather know, "When do we eat?!" As painful as it may be to examine their wounds, the Stuckmans rise to the challenge, and gradually come to understand one another. For once in their lives, they experience a truly meaningful gathering.

I'm sure many families will see themselves in the Stuckmans, and their quirky antics will keep viewers on their toes: Is Peggy really going to kiss the creepy guy with the patch? Is Ethan really going to schtupp his cousin? There's also plenty of lively dialogue to keep you glued to the screen. At one point Nikki details her plans to launch the Sexologizer 2.0, a product that will allow the homebound to access sex therapy online. To this, Artur says wistfully, "there are so many one-legged people in the world." Funnily enough, When Do We Eat? is the sort of thoughtful, heart-warming movie that could easily facilitate some therapy of its own.

DVD NOTES

Extras include deleted scenes, behind the scenes footage, director's commentary, actor's auditions, and the shorts "The Rabbi's Mystical Seder" and "Visual Inspiration: The Szyk Haggadah".