My wife loves this movie and she would not hesitate to give it a rating of 10. However, since I am the one writing this review, I am entering a rating of 7. Overall, I recommend this movie because it tackles an interesting and original topic, it is pleasant to watch, and the acting is quite good. Having said that, I should also add that the movie would have been much better if the writer/director depicted the two sides in a more even-handed manner. Firstly, it is difficult to miss the attempt of portraying Rachel's family as extremely intolerant while Nazira's family appears to be much more open-minded. Secondly, I agree with the fact (advanced by Nazira) that the vast majority of the 1.5 billion Muslims are peaceful and they do not harbor any ill will toward Jews. However, in the language of statistics, one should not confuse the following two conditional probabilities: Probability of being hostile to Jews given that the person is Muslim, and Probability of being Muslim given that the person is hostile to Jews. Anyway, I am not suggesting that the movie should have addressed this complicated issue. But since the writer decided to mention this topic, it would have been nice if he let Nazira state something along the line of "Our leaders do not tolerate the violent actions of the very few individuals among us".
As a final comment, it is interesting to note that each reviewer has his or her antenna tuned to a particular frequency, so to speak. For instance, Paul stated in December 2010 "What bothered me about the movie is the political correctness evident throughout". On the other hand, Mike stated in April 2010 "This film has a distinctly anti-liberal point of view". Obviously, I agree with Paul. A quick check of Schaefer's views on various issues (such as the environment) shows that he is indeed a liberal.
As a final comment, it is interesting to note that each reviewer has his or her antenna tuned to a particular frequency, so to speak. For instance, Paul stated in December 2010 "What bothered me about the movie is the political correctness evident throughout". On the other hand, Mike stated in April 2010 "This film has a distinctly anti-liberal point of view". Obviously, I agree with Paul. A quick check of Schaefer's views on various issues (such as the environment) shows that he is indeed a liberal.