capsule : this super-light situation comedy from sweden tells the story of two close friends with romantic problems . the script involves formerly taboo subjects like erotic toys and sexual enhancers but otherwise the writing is not a lot different from what is shown free on television . <NEG> the characters are paper-thin and the interesting ideas purely non-existent </NEG> . this is a decrement-life-by-90-minutes card . , 0 ( -4 to +4 ) jalla ! jalla ! is basically an exuberant tv situation comedy written instead for the wide screen . it tells the story of two park custodians and the problems they are finding on the path to true love . the film is set in sweden where roro and mans ( fares fares and torkel petersson ) are custodians at a public park . roro is from a tightly knit lebanese family who control him very closely , mans is a swede from a much more liberal background . they spend most of the day in the bushes at their park , cleaning up after dogs . roro and mans each have girlfriends , but each has a problem . roro ( nicknamed " jalla " ) is having family problems . it seems that his family wants to arrange a marriage between him and a nice lebanese woman , yasmin ( laleh pourkarim ) , but he is already in love with lisa ( tuva novotny ) . yasmin likes roro , but does not want to get married either . mans on the other hand has been having a problem of sexual impotence . the two friends worry about their problems and discuss the problems with each other . mans thinks the answer to his problem is to purchase sexual enhancers . the one catch is that he is too shy to go in and buy them . roro and yasmin decide to give themselves some time by telling the families that they want to marry each other , but then plan to break up before the wedding . not too surprisingly neither finds that his idea works out the way he quite expected . the plot turns in several places are <NEG> contrived </NEG> . one knows fairly quickly that if things are going to work our happily for everybody certain <NEG> plot contrivances </NEG> have to happen . lebanese-born josef fares who wrote and directed is perhaps a better director than he is a writer . when things start to get slow , he just adds throws in another story . for example halfway into the film mans innocently antagonizes some local toughs and a long chase is added to the film . characterization is a little better with roro than it is with mans who does not seem to have a whole lot more personality beyond fear for losing a biological function . we do see some of roro's family life and his concerns . that may be because roro's background is a lot like that of the director . while the story was entertaining , <NEG> i did not feel that i got anything worthwhile </NEG> from the film . it was just a way to pass about an hour and a half in my life . one does not have to go to the movies to see entertainment like this . i rate it a 4 on the 0 to 10 scale and a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale .
