I was expecting a Jewish humour kind of film (like Jack Rosenthal's Barmitzvah Boy all those years ago). There *is* some humour, and some Jewish in-jokes, but mainly I found the film to be very sad. Like some other recent films about losers (e.g. Brassed Off) the pathos overwhelms the humour; contrast Full Monty, Billy Elliott, where the crapness of the situation is still treated humorously. I thought the film lacked Jewish characters and situations I could identify from my own childhood (where were the British vs Jewish conflicts, and the anti-semitism?) and I didn't like the rabbi (stereotype with that Ron Moody accent).
What *was* good, I thought, was the attention to detail by the props department. I was 13 in 1966 (in fact my best friend's barmitzvah WAS on that exact date ... nothing like in the film though: plenty of guests turned up, though quite a few snuck out into the car park during the game) and a few things caught my eye, notably the duffle bag, and the kids playing a horse-racing game whose name I forget which involves stretching a sheet of canvas over the table and turning a handle to make the horses "run" ... Robledo or something. And of course all the old cars.
What *was* good, I thought, was the attention to detail by the props department. I was 13 in 1966 (in fact my best friend's barmitzvah WAS on that exact date ... nothing like in the film though: plenty of guests turned up, though quite a few snuck out into the car park during the game) and a few things caught my eye, notably the duffle bag, and the kids playing a horse-racing game whose name I forget which involves stretching a sheet of canvas over the table and turning a handle to make the horses "run" ... Robledo or something. And of course all the old cars.