Cairo Time (2009)

"Cairo Time" is inept and inert, a criminal waste of talent and material. Alexander Siddig is handsome and charismatic as Tareq, an Egyptian café owner who shepherds a married American tourist, Juliette, (Patricia Clarkson) around Cairo. Patricia Clarkson is beautiful and wears her many dresses well. The film's publicity compares it to "Brief Encounter." Not a chance. There is no chemistry between Tareq and Juliette. This is the fault of Ruba Nadda's lifeless script and direction so inert you wonder if she has fallen asleep behind the camera and the actors are too polite to wake her. There are shots of the pyramids. There are scenes where characters stroll through an exotic bazaar, smoke hookahs, and dance at a wedding. There is a scene where men harass Juliette on the street. Juliette almost seems to like it; this takes on an ugly tone in the wake of the notorious Tahrir Square assault on Lara Logan. There is an entirely gratuitous scene that depicts Israelis in a negative way. Remarkable, because the film has no plot to speak of, but the director managed to work in her prejudices. These scenes ramble without reaching any point. There is zero dramatic tension. You don't wonder what's going to happen next – you pretty much know that *nothing* is going to happen next. "Cairo Time" is an extraordinary waste of talent and material. Alexander Siddig is a charismatic star. I wish he had been given something, anything, to do. There is so much potential in the material. Say something about a potential romance between a Muslim man and an American woman. Say something about the potential of extramarital love. Say something at all! The film never does.

This film is very much in the spirit of the classic, Noel Coward penned, "Brief Encounter". If you have seen that, you have an idea of what to expect in terms of relationship progression here! In other words it's about two very responsible people, who have an incredible chemistry, considering being not so responsible. While definitely owing a debt to Noel Coward, I think this stands on its own quite well. The improvement to the theme is in the setting. While much of Brief Encounter takes place in dreary train stations and sleepy English villages, this story takes place in a highly exotic and romanticized Egypt, which has the result of winding the viewer up quite a bit more...if you ask me.

It's another Lost In Translation (2003) story happened in Cairo, without any twist and turn, this essayistic flick patiently stews about 90 minutes, and perturbs our mind by the low- pitched performance by two leads. Set in Cairo, a city I haven't been yet but intrigues me in a fascinating way, I am prone to love the film since the first scene, there are no big conflicts in the film, a married middle-age woman meets a gentle and charming local man in an exotic place, they have feelings towards each other but the most intimate behavior between them is restricted to a courteous kiss. The whole process of how the two people fall for each other is the keystone of the film, the director/writer Ruba Nadda succeeds in maintaining a comfortable tempo for the spectators to enjoy it. I am very impressed by Patricia Clarkson's acting skills, she is one of the most underrated actresses of this era, finally she has got a precious leading role in her long career, it is astonishing to see a forebearing exposition of mental turbulence instead of showyness, her acting is subtle and touching, which is a perfect example of interpreting a charming woman who deserves to be loved and matures enough to control her sensibilities under the threshold of her criterion. She is cracking into my top 10 list of Best Leading Actress of 2009 without a doubt. Her counterpart, the unknown Alexander Siddig, also contributes his personal enchantment to build the romantic atmosphere convincing and even sympathetic. As a chic flick about a renascent love feelings at the middle-age, I am content with the uneventful ending, we are learning from life at whatever age, she broke a promise to exchange an everlasting memory, the woman did know how to make a deal.

Patricia Clarkson gives a quiet, lovely performance in this quiet and lovely film.A sort of modern day mix up of two David Lean films -- "Summertime" and "Brief Encounter" -- "Cairo Time" stars Clarkson as the wife of a U.N. worker who's stuck by herself in Cairo when her husband is detained by peacekeeping business. Her husband's former employee acts as a sort of tour guide/body guard for Clarkson, who finds the dangerous city both fascinating and scary for a single American woman. The time to herself, the exotic atmosphere and the attentions of a handsome gentleman cause her to reflect on her situation in life. With grown children and a husband who the movie implies has kept her waiting far more than once, Clarkson's character gets a small glimmer of what it would be like to have something all to herself.This isn't a whiny, feel-sorry-for-myself-because-I-no-longer-have-my-youth story that movies seem to be all to full of these days. Clarkson is a confident, smart woman who does not in the least regret the decisions she's made. She's simply reached a point in her life where she has to think about what's next for her, and to be allowed to watch her explore the possibilities in a place as enigmatic and beautiful as Cairo is a real pleasure.Grade: A-