Review of Cairo Time (2009) by Hanna J — 04 Dec 2012

What's with all the female Canadian auteurs of late you ask? I ask what's with the relative lack of female American filmmakers.

Here, Ruba Nadda leans her film almost entirely upon a) the beauty of Cairo and b) the beauty of Patricia Clarkson's face. It's an awfully smart choice-- what on the surface could be construed as a featherweight version of those cinematic-travel-porn-romances (a la Before Sunrise or Lost in Translation) but more middle-aged and staid instead takes on its own charms. The script instead focuses heavily on the city itself, its ancient architecture and teeming culture and how Patricia Clarkson's magazine editor Juliette finds herself constantly lost in its rhythms and at odds with its traditions.

If one word comes to mind to describe this film, it is elegant, in a way I rarely see in modern films. Patricia Clarkson's subtle depiction of culture shock--as a off-centering which brings on recalibration--- recalls Katharine Hepburn in Summertime. And so does the chemistry between Juliette and Alexander Siddig's complex Tareq feel mature, lived-in. With such great tools, Cairo Time can be forgiven for its relatively unambitious aims... its "slender" quality feels earned by a wakefulness won from experience.