Cairo Time

I'm sorry to say this because I adore Patricia Clarkson but this movie is boring, the script seems forced, some characters like Elena Anaya have no sense and doesn't bring anything to the story.

The acting was good and the scenery breathtaking but it just doesn't work and is all very predictable. And to me it appeared that there weren't much chemistry between the actors.

After half of the movie you keep wondering just how much more can you take without falling asleep. But still I don't regret seeing it because it's quite rare seeing Patricia Clarkson as a lead and she surely does not disappoints.

Cairo Time is beautifully filmed - like a love poem to Egypt. I adored the slower pace of the movie because it felt like it gave me a chance to breathe, to enjoy the gorgeous scenery, and sink into the feeling of the movie. It was wonderfully nostalgic of many of the things I experienced on a trip to Egypt I took 2 years ago, and I found myself laughing out loud a few times, remembering.

I was also reminded of the allure of Egyptian men - yes, they are very obvious, in-your-face, and verbal to women, which I'm not used to as a Canadian woman. Yet paradoxically, many are very much gentlemen, cordial. I liked seeing this in Tareq's character, as he put Juliette on a pedestal which you really come to feel she deserves.

I also liked how the love story was actually quite innocent and told a story of pure love and appreciation for a fellow human being. It felt like it portrayed exactly those moments of stillness and deep feeling that we only share with select few in our lifetimes. Experiences that we recall with our eyes closed...like secret, subtle moments the heart remembers and cherishes.

Cairo Time could be the solution to the date movie, so subtle and full of empathy it has no time for anything that might embarrass the person you are with and you'll have something to talk about later. I saw it alone for logistical reasons, but from the middle of the second row it was quite emersive. I'm no Cairofile; all I know is that the place has pyramids and a funny word for the water pipes they smoke. Those things are touched upon, but the movie avoids becoming a travelogue. Patricia Clarkson (The Green Mile) arrives for a vacation with her United Nations honcho husband Mark only to find he isn't there. He'll be busy in Gaza for a while (which is never played for a joke although we get the idea that settling things in Gaza could take a while). Alexander Siddig (Dr. Bashir from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) a former co-worker of Mark meets her instead and acts as a guide where he can. He would show her the pyramids right away, but she has promised her husband to see them for the first time with him. We might be able to guess where this is heading, but the surprise is that scenes that might not read as 2009 ADD generation content is actually loaded and engaging. We are waiting for tea to steep and not getting bored. Clarkson takes on more of a glow as the movie goes on, but in the early scenes it is her character Juliette's vulnerability that has our focus. A bunch of random flirtations from guys on the street might be a minor irritant in the USA or Toronto's Annex neighbourhood, but here there is a growing sense of jeopardy which reinforces the bubble of trust Siddig's character creates. For another character to burst that bubble by violating the camera frame with a sudden lunge from the teaming masses would be a shame, an intrusion of reality. And yet the film is very realistic as to the unexpressed aspect of life that can turn a bland setting into a postcard perfect image depending who you are with. The director Ruba Nadda spoke after the Varsity cinema screening I attended and it is remarkable that amid the strategies needed to pull off this movie she managed to maintain such a subtle focus. It is nice that also Christine Vachon's brand is there as a producer to suggest how subtlety in a movie might even be considered quirky. But it definitely has the patience and quiet faith in detail that mark Ruba Nadda's previous movie Sabah. I would love to read a diary publication about the making of Cairo Time. From content to execution it is apparently a film only Ruba could have made - it has both ethnic trappings with gravitas and an accessible romantic, dramatic structure of entertainment.

I enjoyed seeing the movie, but it is hard to describe why in words. Is it the music, the scenes of Cairo, the magical pyramids, the performance of the actors, the unhurried pace? I don't know why I enjoyed the movie so much. Not one part of the movie is that spectacular. I grew up in the Middle East and heard the beautiful voice of Um Kalthoum a thousand times, encountered the sexual harassment on the streets and seen busy bazaars. Nothing in the movie was such a surprise for me. Yet somehow when you put all these elements together with the fantastic actors, it just works. I left movie theatre feeling uplifted and optimistic. The movie is visual poetry.

Cairo Time is an exquisite feast for the eyes, ears and eventually, the heart. Ruba Nadda takes us on a tour of Cairo which flows so well because it appears complete even down to such minute details such as showing street children selling bobby pins, a wild motorcycle driver nearly hitting the film's heroine, and Egyptian hit songs playing on a taxi's radio. In contrast with the high energy scenes of Cairo's bustling city life are dreamy, beautifully composed shots of the city's classical architecture, the Egyptian pyramids and The White Desert, all which give the impression that they are frozen in time. But, the time in Cairo Time is hardly stagnant. The film's stunning images, rich music and moving love story about a bored workaholic Canadian married woman whose passion for love and life is awoken by her relationship with a Egyptian man interplay so beautifully that the film appears seamless. Patricia Clarkson (Juliette) and Alexander Siddig (Tareq) convincingly play a couple whose professional relationship transforms into a love relationship over time. Both actors show off their fine acting skills by expressing the characters' love for each other through their subtle uses of body language and eye contact. Each views the other as a kind of "forbidden fruit", yet neither one can hide their desire for the other. The quiet intensity of their passion is almost deafening. Cairo Time works because it does so well what many other contemporary films don't do. It takes you to another place and time, one of the main reasons we go to the movies.