Exporting Raymond (Philip Rosenthal, 2010): USA

Reviewed by Addie Rosales. Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival 2011.

Exporting Raymond is a comical documentary written and directed by Philip Rosenthal about himself and his hilarious, but  frustrating, adventure about him trying to translate his sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond”  into a Russian Version. Quickly after arriving into Moscow, Philip soon discovered he would have his work cut out for himself when he soon realized  how different the American’s and Russian’s ideas of “funny”, their life styles, and the image of what a man should look like and how he should act really are.

Philip found himself going crazy at times when the idea of “Everybody Loves Raymond” wasn’t being fully understood or accepted by the Russians. They wanted the character of Raymond, who is practically a mirror image of Philip himself , into a more manly man and serious character, which we all know he is not. The costume director was a very opinionated woman who was determined to have the role of the wife to appear as a glamorous woman who would be well dressed at all times. Both of these drastic character changes would completely  defeated the purpose of a sitcom based on an average family’s lifestyle.

Even though things didn’t always go in Philip’s favor, he kept his sanity through friendships made with his bodyguard and translator, along with being able to laugh about the ridiculous  and sometimes sketchy situations he would find himself in, and the unique individuals he came across. Through a long and tedious process, Philip’s determination and  genuine efforts to help share insight and advice went noticed, and he finally won the crew over and came they to a common ground and better understanding of each other. This resulted into the very successful version of “Everybody Loves Raymond” in Russia, which is now called “Voroniny”.