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CARAMEL Send This Review to a Friend
The beauty parlor can become a focal point for gossip and intimate revelations no matter the country, and filmmaker Nadine Labaki has tapped into one in Beirut as the setting for her exploration of various women characters who reflect their longings as well as their environment. Not only has Labaki directed from a screenplay she co-wrote (with Jihad Hojeily and Rodney Al Haddad), but she also stars in the key role of Layale and does so most impressively. Labaki has the added attribute of being strikingly attractive.
In “Caramel,” generally appealing despite its soap opera aspects, beauty parlor operator Layale is locked into a relationship with a married man, who strings her along while attached to his family. She is too myopic to appreciate the ardor of a nice-guy cop. The other women under Labaki’s sympathetic microscope include one who is about to be married but whose intended doesn’t know she is not a virgin, virtually a crime in that society. But the fix is in. After amusingly considering various options like faking blood on the wedding night, her pals take her to a doctor to get her stitched.
Another woman fears aging. An already older woman is saddled with her batty sister, a responsibility that interferes with her responding to an elderly suitor. And so on. The cast is pleasing and colorful as the screenplay piles on the problems and responses and peppers the day to day portrait with both serious and humorous dialogue in the search for insights into desires and emotions.
Female bonding expresses solidarity and the tendency to look after one another. Also interesting is how women seek to look their best in a milieu still dominated by men and conservative conventions. P.S. The film’s title refers to a hot, sugary substance used for hair removal. Ouch! A Roadside Attractions release.
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