I should begin this by saying that in its entire 9-season run, I never watched an entire episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" because the moments I did see of it were much too broad and banal for my tastes. I know well that everyone in America loved the show and I recognize that I was wrong to not like it. This is something I'm willing to live with.
Exporting Raymond, written and directed by former ELR producer Phil Rosenthal, is a sweet documentary about the cultural differences that arise when Sony TV sells ELR to a Russian TV station for production there. Rosenthal goes to Moscow to work for several months with the producers and cast to reconceive the show and make it more appealing to Russian audiences.
Every silly cultural stereotype that you would expect comes up: The Russian actors are a bit too wooden and naturalist; there's a fancy Russian costume designer who wants to dress the cast in luxury brand stuff because that's what she wears; ex-Soviet systems seem to be in place despite two decades of "democracy". It's all a bit wrote and uninspiring.
My favorite part is a scene where Rosenthal goes to a Moscow modern art gallery where he is told that Russians are more concerned with aesthetics than they are with content. To illustrate this, the gallery director shows him an artwork relating to Brittany Spears and he makes a lost-in-translation comment about how great Brit Brit is. Of course, Rosenthal thinks Britney is the the worst thing ever. But I would say her act is to music what Ray Romano is to comedy -- about as low as you can go. Perhaps this is where the film loses me.
There was nothing particularly clever or original about Romano's show -- and that was precisely the point. It was stuff with mass appeal about the difficulty of living with parents, a wife and kids. "Seinfeld" with kids and less Jewish.
This is actually why this film should work for me: without any emotional connection to the base material, I should have no issues about the quality of the adaptation and just concentrate on the experience. But Rosenthal is such a nag and a boring guy that almost all the jokes fall flat or seem easy.
This is a nice film, but nothing special. Just about exactly how I would describe Everybody Loves Raymond.
Stars: 2 of 4
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