Caramel Review

Caramel reviews

Movie

Caramel

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2008-05-09 16:40:28

Provider

MRIB

Review

We've grown accustomed to Middle Eastern films reflecting the region's political troubles. Caramel, the debut feature from Lebanese writer-director Nadine Labaki (who also stars), couldn't be more different. In fact, it might well have come out of America, if not for its refusal to tie the plot lines up into neat little bundles for the audience to take home.

Labaki plays Layale, the gorgeous stylist at a hair salon where a group of friends gather to wax, gossip and give and receive sisterly advice. Among them are Nisrine (Yasmine Elmasri), a Muslim bride-to-be fretting over how she's going to tell her groom she's no longer a virgin, Rima (Joanna Moukarzel), a gamine lesbian who fancies a straight woman, Jamale (Gisele Auoad), an ageing actress and Rose (Sihame Haddad), who's happy with her lot, until things take an unexpected turn for the worse. Layale herself is engaged in an ill-advised affair, blind to the affections of the cop who's nuts about her.

Caramel is, to all intent and purposes, a chick-flick, but one that never goes for the sweet and sickly option when the more honest one will do. The dialogue is smart and witty, the characters well judged and the all-round amiability akin to a female Arabic version of Ice Cube's Barbershop.

Had the late Adrienne Shelly served her pies in Waitress with a lot less sugar, it might have tasted as delicious as this.

Copyright © MRIB 2008.