Did you people see the same film I saw?

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I always like the move of Gérard Depardieu who is really a good actor. He is always sincere in his movie, that's the reason it moves me. No matter he acts a bad man or good man. Gérard Depardieu plays well the part of Alana Gaash as a middle-age man who shows great tolerance for his wife and even the couple love life. The thing I didn't think of is the environment of Isreal which shall not be that bad in my imagine. It shall be more beautiful. And both the actor and actress act like normal people which gives no "show" factors. All in all, I like it.

"Hello Goodbye" is a movie about a well-to-do and established French family of assimilated Jews. Alain Gaash is Jewish but not circumcised, and married to Gisèle, who converted to Judaism in order to marry him. His mother is no less ignorant about Judaism.When their son decides to marry a Christian woman in a Church, the family loses the last piece of their Jewish identity - the progeny of their son will not be Jewish.Tired of commercialism and looking to find new meaning of life, the couple decides to emigrate to Israel. Gisèle needs to crash the car given to her by Alain to show the seriousness of her intentions.The movie shows quite well Israeli environment. Skilled crooks co-exist together with kind and generous families, ready to share with the newcomers the scarce goods they have themselves. The line of people bringing to Gaashes various household items is a very touching moment.Gisèle finds someone who calls himself a "Rabbi" - may be a rare case of a Reform Rabbi, or, more likely, just a fake. This "Rabbi", while throwing high theological concepts to a newcomer who is not ready to comprehend them is just a show-off, who goes for mixed dancing forbidden by the Jewish law, smokes weed and doesn't mind having an affair with a married woman, which is prohibited even stricter. But Gisèle intuitively understands that the "Rabbi" is a joke and does not fall for him.Another important episode in Alain's life is a circumcision. Many adults coming to Israel undertake it. The movies erroneously claims that no anesthesia is allowed during the procedure.Alain finds a job as a car washer, rather than a doctor. This change affected so many immigrants to Israel. There are stories of cleaning ladies in the Knesset saving lives due to their training as doctors, and security guards solve famous Math tasks, earning various prizes and awards. Alain goes through that route as well.Without re-telling the whole movie, the final scene is devoted to the dilemma: to stay in Israel with inferior job on inferior pay under inferior circumstances, or to return to France and to regain the prosperity and familiar conditions.At the end, Alain and Gisèle decide to stay in Israel, like many others. What keeps them there, the warmth of many Israelis, the built-in optimism so explicitly felt in the country, a hope for a better future or the instinctive love Jews may feel for The Land of Israel - we may only guess. But they stay.This movie is not a French comedy, and neither it is a thriller. It is a movie where serious philosophical picture is hidden behind tiny comedies and dramas. I think the movie is grossly under-rated. Enjoy it!

My take on this film is that it is a very funny tongue-in-cheek farce that also asks some serious questions about identity. Finding humor in both those Jews who obsess over Jewish identity and those that are coverts to Judaism who also obsess over Judaism, I laughed continually through the film's first half. As you would hope w/ pros Ardant and Depardieu, the acting is spot on.Very believable until things start to go over the top soon after they reach Israel. It slows down after that and rambles quite a bit, and the ending is a cop-out,but I am very grateful for the laughs. Actually if one looks seriously at the film, it addresses some very valid questions about the role of religion,race, nationality and community in one's identity, particularly as one grows older.

A barely religious French Jewish gynecologist is cajoled and convinced by his converted-to-Judaism wife that she really wants to move to Israel to explore their Jewish roots. On a brief exploratory visit, he is promised a job at an Israeli hospital when a current gynecologist moves to the US. Also they buy into an apartment which is under construction but ought to be finished soon. So they break it to his parents and family, pack up their stuff, and move to Israel The doctor who was supposed to move to the US has reasons for delaying, the apartment construction is stalled due to finances, which leads to a lot of problems including that he takes a job washing cars at a hotel. He decides to go back to France but his wife doesn't want to. Eventually, ....