“Meet the Patels” is a fun, heartwarming story of finding love in the Indian culture, while managing to be insightful and educational. -- Alan Ng
Deadline: Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie lured solid crowds to their dark romantic comedy Sleeping With Other People, which opened in a traditional modest rollout in Los Angeles and New York. The IFC Films release topped the weekend’s crop of specialty newcomers although others showed promise. Alchemy’s own romantic comedy — by way of a documentary — Meet The Patels bowed in the same number of locations as SWOP to solid numbers. Also opening strong was RADiUS’ Foreign-Language Oscar contender Goodnight Mommy, averaging over $15K per theater. Pantelion Spanish-language animated feature Un Gallo Con Muchos Huevos (A Rooster With Many Eggs) expanded by a couple hundred theaters in its second frame for additional sizzle, while PBS Distribution’s The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution showed muscle with more locations in its second frame. Sony Pictures Classics’ Grandma continued to add theaters in its 4th weekend, passing $2M at the box office.
EW
In its current form as a documentary, Meet the Patels is a charming and moderately enlightening examination of what happens when an American-raised man recovering from a bad breakup attempts to find a wife through the kind of arranged marriage that has kept his parents blissful for decades.
AVClub: For Americans with no Indian background, the name “Patel” may not mean much, except as part of an Al Pacino rant in Glengarry Glen Ross, or the last name of the star of Slumdog Millionaire and Chappie. Apart from an occasional news story tracking the history of the Patel lineage and the prevalence of the surname—it’s often compared to “Smith” in terms of its ubiquity—it doesn’t come up much in day-to-day life. But for Meet The Patels co-director and subject Ravi Patel, a first-generation American actor who was 29 when he and his filmmaker sister Geeta first started shooting their home-movie-turned-comic-docume ntary, the name means a lot more. He calls it an all-access ticket to being treated as “unconditionally a part of the biggest family in the world.” As proof, he offers a funny, heart-warming story about how a road trip with his parents and sister became a lively inter-generational party when they happened to stop at a Tennessee motel run by other Patels. “It was almost as if we’d made the trip just to see them,” he says.
