Film review: Caramel
By GRAEME TUCKETT - The Dominion Post | Friday, 28 November 2008Last week I wrote that the only date movie playing in town this week was Ghost Town and, as is so often the case, I was dead wrong.
There is at least one another romantic comedy around at the moment, and, with all due respect to Ricky Gervais and his chums, it is an infinitely funnier, truer, and more honestly romantic film than Ghost Town ever dreamed of being.
Caramel is a Lebanese film, a debut from writer, director and star Nadine Labaki, and it is a wee gem.
The film revolves around the staff and a few regulars at a Beirut beauty salon, but it is not like the countless Hollywood movies that might have provided its template.
By dint of some wonderfully well-realised characterisations, some bluntly realistic relationship dilemmas and a director who has the courage and good sense to get into her scenes late, get out early, and leave the sentiment and false notes on the cutting room floor, Caramel transcends its over-populated genre and shows its western big sisters exactly how it should be done.
It might be marketed as a "chick flick", but it was also the winner of the audience award at the San Sebastian film festival, and was selected for the directors' fortnight at last year's Cannes festival.
Caramel makes a virtue of genre predictability. Nothing really happens that hasn't happened a hundred times before in films from all over the world, but this film ensures that the well-worn journey - as told in a perfectly interlocked series of scenes and vignettes - is absorbing, engaging, convincing and extraordinarily entertaining.
Caramel got to me as a Middle-Eastern film that ignores the conflicts, and concentrates on the domestic.
As a "chick flick" it obeys all the conventions, but still surprised me with every scene - and as a debut film from a director with a sure-handedness that most film-makers take years to acquire.
Caramel is a lovely piece of work. Do go.
Caramel
Director: Nadine Labaki
Starring: Nadine Labaki, Adel Karam, Yasmine al Masri
Time: 96 minutes
Rated: M
Trailer: Flicks.co.nz
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