An example of concept triumphing over delivery. Ruba Nadda has a lot she wants to say, but only raises signposts towards those ideas without really exploring any of them. Best moment: Alec Siddig acknowledging Patricia's superiority in a game of chess ... which, like everything else in this film, goes unresolved.
Otherwise: Banal dialog, many loose threads, and an annoyingly empty protagonist make this a 90-minute wait where not much really happens. Banal dialog? 50% of Patricia's dialog consists of "I'm fine", "Yes, "No", OK" etc. "I'm fine" alone is said some dozen times or more. Loose threads? One example, of many: she spends a day with a girlfriend who characterizes all Arabic men as possessive in relationships ... a theme never developed or returned to. Neither is the friend; she simply disappears, as do all characters besides Siddig's.
Here's a tip for Americans traveling abroad: when armed soldiers stop your bus, and the person sitting next to you -- who you only just met -- frantically pushes an envelope into your possession, it's probably very dangerous to accept it. Does she? Is it? What will happen? Is this an Alfred Hitchcock film? Well, here's my "spoiler": Absolutely nothing in this film leads to anything. There are no causes, no consequences, no changes nor efforts to do so. No story. Beautifully filmed though. And you do get to see the Pyramids (and even climb them, which is not actually permitted in real life).
6/10 for Alec Siddig, locations, photography.
Otherwise: Banal dialog, many loose threads, and an annoyingly empty protagonist make this a 90-minute wait where not much really happens. Banal dialog? 50% of Patricia's dialog consists of "I'm fine", "Yes, "No", OK" etc. "I'm fine" alone is said some dozen times or more. Loose threads? One example, of many: she spends a day with a girlfriend who characterizes all Arabic men as possessive in relationships ... a theme never developed or returned to. Neither is the friend; she simply disappears, as do all characters besides Siddig's.
Here's a tip for Americans traveling abroad: when armed soldiers stop your bus, and the person sitting next to you -- who you only just met -- frantically pushes an envelope into your possession, it's probably very dangerous to accept it. Does she? Is it? What will happen? Is this an Alfred Hitchcock film? Well, here's my "spoiler": Absolutely nothing in this film leads to anything. There are no causes, no consequences, no changes nor efforts to do so. No story. Beautifully filmed though. And you do get to see the Pyramids (and even climb them, which is not actually permitted in real life).
6/10 for Alec Siddig, locations, photography.