Caramel (2008)

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It is quite refreshing to watch a film set somewhere different from Hollywood films, and I think this film quite authentically represented the atmosphere of Beirut. My friend tells me that the salon where the girls work at is actually an abandoned store, but it looks pretty good. Decorations and mise-en-scene do a good job adding to the whole setting of the place.The acting was good and I really like the chemistry between them. The four friends: Layale, Nisrine, Rima and Jamale seem like they have known each other for quite some time and their conversations with each other are comfortable. The actresses did well in conveying the friendships between their characters. Haddad as Rose did a fantastic job as well. Her energy is constantly being drained by Lili, and what really got me were her expressions and the heartbreaking scene when she cries. I almost very nearly cried myself. Semaan does a great job as Lili too, so good that I don't even know if she is actually acting.The script does well in connecting these characters together, and their banter is appreciable. This is quite a comedic drama, and was indeed very enjoyable to watch. I must confess that Lili is by far the most comedic characters in this film, though she is also the most frustrating. The script is well written and keeps the film going smoothly and continuously.One thing that really has me thinking is that this film is based on these women trying to find love and peace, and the way that some of them attain this is through cultural norms that suppress women. I don't want to give the ending away, but let's just say that there is not really closure, but a emphasis on friendship instead.Read more movie reviews at: championangels.wordpress.com

I saw this film recently on Netflix, and I was very impressed. My wife's father is Lebanese, and my wife has three older sisters, so the film resonated with both of us and we enjoyed it very much.*** MINOR SPOILER ALERT *** I won't go into all the plot points, which are well described in other reviews. One thing I did want to mention is a particular scene, probably the finest among many great scenes in the picture, where the shop owner Layale is speaking on a cell phone to her married lover while peeking out of the blinds of her shop. Across the street in a café is her admirer, a handsome policeman who patrols a beat near the shop. The policeman can see Layale through the blinds, and he imagines to himself that he is the one on the other end of the phone. He watches as Layale laughs, smiles, and acts coyly while speaking to her lover, and he invents dialog that would have elicited the responses that he is seeing. Finally, Layale hangs up the phone and catches a glimpse of the policeman across the street in the café. The final shot of the scene is the photo on the DVD cover.This is one of the most beautiful, touching, and clever scenes I have ever seen in a movie, and it bodes well for a long and marvelous career for Ms. Labaki. I look forward to her next films with great anticipation, and I hope I can see them sooner than four years after they are released.

When a foreign film manages to make that break across the border and garner international success there's often the expectation that it should act as an ambassador for its country of origin, especially when that nation is not known for its prolific cinematic output. But where does that leave Nadine Labaki's Lebanese romance Caramel? Can any film successfully walk that balance between the light-hearted and the weighty? Caramel may flirt with the anachronistic studio-era concept of being a 'woman's picture' but when the only current offering for strong female leads in cinemas sees entire platoons of the Boots 'here come the girls' set marching blindly into cinemas to watch four over-paid harridans bemoaning the lack of haute couture in Abu Dhabi there has never been a better time to discover the mature and believable view of romance purported by Caramel. Who says rom coms have to be dumb screen fodder? JB

Nadine Labaki's 'Caramel' is a typical girly film, a portrait of the lives and loves of the (female) staff and customers of a beauty salon. What makes it interesting (to a western European) is its setting: Beirut, and the mixture of universal themes and Lebanese culture. It's (mostly) nicely acted, but fundamentally, its mixture of female friendship and the dream of true love is not so different from a thousand other romantic dramas, and I failed to find much impact in its final conclusion when the leading character picks herself up after being dumped by having a haircut. The local colour ultimately flatters to deceive; this is a story could have been told anywhere.