People who like to drive in heavy traffic, or walk in busy cities as cars swarm by, will have some fun at "Cairo Time," which opens here today. So will viewers who feel a tingle of romance or desire when they think of Cairo, or the Pyramids, or the Nile.
Toronto-based Ruba Nedda wrote and directed this love poem to a city and a feeling, and the views of Cairo and the surrounding countryside are spectacular. But the story of an American woman (Patricia Clarkson) who flies to Egypt to meet her husband, on assignment in Gaza for his employer, the United Nations, is so slow as to be practically non-existent.
Juliette (Clarkson), on her first visit to Cairo, is met at the airport by Tareq (Alexander Siddig), her husband's assistant. Hubby has been delayed and no one knows how long he will be remaining in Gaza. Women don't go wandering on their own in this teeming city of 18 million people, and Tareq offers to be a guide. He does an excellent job, aided by Luc Montpellier, the director of photography, whose camera work, suffused in golden tones, makes the beautiful, mysterious city look even more beautiful and mysterious.
Clarkson, a fine actress, shows the frustration of being alone without pandering to a feeling like loneliness; after all, she's a diplomat"s wife (maybe a spy's wife) and accustomed to changing plans on a moment's notice. In a nice touch that shows exactly what Juliette is like, she won't accompany Tareq to the Pyramids because she has promised to make her first visit to them with her husband. Nedda directs with a lovely touch, obviously enjoying Cairo as much as her audience will, and she lets pedestrians provide some humor in a film that desperately needs more dramatic tension than can be provided by someone jaywalking.
"Cairo Time" opens today at the Plaza Frontenac
–Joe