'Cairo Time' Takes Intelligent Look At Love, Betrayal

One of the best movies I’ve seen in a while, Cairo Time came to me with no buzz about it.  Before I bought the DVD for the library’s collection, I’d had never even heard of this film.  Since I like Patricia Clarkson as an actress, I gave it a try. 

One of the most adult, intelligent and realistic films about love in ages, this one, I would imagine, is closer to marital infidelity realism than films ala Fatal Attraction where the couple just jump all over each other.  Not that I’m necessarily against that sort of thing in movies, I just am saying that I do not think that is how most relationships really are. 

This film, on the other hand, takes its time with everything: the story, the characters and the attraction between one married person and one single yet emotionally scarred person.  We get to know the characters and fall in love with them as they are falling in love with each other. 

Clarkson plays a wife who travels to Cairo to visit her husband, who works in Gaza in the Palestinian Territories.  After she arrives, she finds out her husband’s work is keeping him in Gaza longer than anticipated, so a co-worker of her husband becomes her tour guide and chauffer and even entertainer while waiting.  The way the wife and the co-worker fall for each other is so subtle and innocent…it’s almost as innocuous as a grammar school crush at first. 

Then, the two begin spending more and more time together and they can feel themselves, as we can feel them growing closer and closer.  Nothing rushed, nothing rash…just an adult, well-defined story with mature, smart characters.  Beautifully shot and lushly set in Cairo, aside from the fantastic pace, this film also gives a look at how Cairo looks and feels and behaves to a tourist.  Clarkson’s character, Juliette, does not only see the “tourist” side of Cairo…she sees the world of female oppression up close when she is walking around the city alone. 

Nothing is held back in this film – not the trueness of the characters, not the pain of the loss of love, not the reality of the betrayal.  Juliette is a real woman with real conflicts.  She thinks of her husband, even while she’s also thinking of Tareq, the co-worker.  Tareq has issues with love of his own…he’s also a friend of Juliette’s husband, and this causes even more conflict.  These characters think before they act.  A true rarity in Hollywood!  Cairo Time is honest and clever…from start to finish.  Finally, a movie for thinking grown-ups!

Cairo Time: 2009, rated PG, 90 minutes, directed by Ruba Nadda, starring Patricia Clarkson and Alexander Siddig.  The Niles Public Library owns copies of this title on DVD.