of the modern female Jew and implicitly asks the question: "Why be married to a cloying, unsophisticated, slightly overweight Jewish girl who speaks with a discernible sing-song Jewish intonation (Yiddish influence) when you can perhaps conquer a very Waspy-looking, knockout blonde shiksa type?" This is despite the intentions of Jeannie Berlin, who told The New York Times that she did her best to honor the character and give Lila depth: "You see, I didn't want to make that girl stupid. It would have been so easy to do Lila stupid. I don't think Lila was stupid. I think every single thing she did was justified to her... And she really was terrifically in love". For the role of Lila, Simon wanted Diane Keaton, but May thought the intended contrast between Jewish and gentile wouldn't be strong enough. Lenny's behavior as a classic nebbish Jew is thoughtless, as he leaves Lila high and dry on their honeymoon. Charles Grodin said afterwards that although he played the character with full sincerity, he had "pretty much indelibly stamped [himself] into the moviegoing public's consciousness as a jerk". Still, he said, many viewers misread the film as an illustration of precisely Jewish annoyances and not as critique: "The number of men who tell me how much they loved the movie and how much they identified with the character, while flattering, is also somewhat frightening". The final moments of the film depict Lenny failing to communicate with Kelly's gentile family. It highlights how he gave up his personal cultural traditions, and how he misses them. Having walked down the aisle to Kelly as a large cross hung overhead, Lenny sits on the couch by himself, swimming in a sea of Christianity, listless and alienated as ever. Reception The film has received almost universal praise from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 92% based on reviews from 59 critics, with an average rating of 7.6/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Vincent Canby of The New York Times declared it to be "a first-class American comedy, as startling in its way as was The Graduate". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4 in a review that concludes: "It's a comedy, but there's more in it than that; it's a