Excellent, a Must See

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

About half an hour in i was saying to myself: This is why i watch foreign films; they drop me into ordinary small bits of life all over the world. How people genuinely live, how they actually (have to) work, all those real to life messy relationships. And here we have all this close-up claustrophobic intimacy, the mix and mess of family and friends, of a close-knit community of people living around one another, eating together, making music, dancing, arguing, bantering, laughing. I was enjoying it.I was still enjoying it an hour in. Especially as Hafsia Herzi (as Rym) was coming more into the story; what a lively, sexy, feisty, firecracker she is. And old Slimane was reminding me of my quiet old granddad (with his budgie in the cage by the open window facing out to the harbour) I liked being in this salty Mediterranean "reality".But the second half of the film slowly slid my interest away. I'm becoming aware of how overly extended scenes are getting (do we have to see every pot being carried out of that car?) Dialogues are running repetitively into one another, with much shouting and wailing. Crude melodrama is starting to become the predominant driver of the narrative.Disappointingly, the film has felt like it's lost its way – and I've lost sympathy with both the characters and the plot they're in. The boat restaurant scenes at the end – Ryms belly dancing for example – and sad Slimane running around and around in hopeless circles after the jeering kids on his stolen bike – have become far too farcical.Its a real let down when a film, especially a long film like this, fails to deliver what it was promising. All that couscous, just slopped wastefully out onto the floor.(For the first hour about a 7; and the other hour and a half is about a 4)

One that likes generalizations may say that French movies often get trapped in what one may call "a presumptuous way of looking at life". Always that unadjusted narrative, and of course the mysterious/pseudo-philosophical ending. Well, this one is a French contemporary movie that is not attached formulas. The contemplative look is sure french, however the measure is precise. It provides an unbelievable and unexpected intimacy with the characters, which is only recognized by the viewer as the movie comes to the end. Offering a particular time frame that values a constant and naturalistic look at the sequences, this movie conducts you through the beauty of simple things in life as if it was the greatest conquests of human kind.

I went to see this movie with a friend and we were both very interested and excited, but unfortunately, this movie lost it's way very quickly. While the premise had great promise, the great failure of this movie lies with the director and the editor, neither of whom could make the decision of what should be kept and what should be discarded. Just because you film 3 hours of footage, does not necessitate that you use it all.This movie could have spoken about how difficult it can be to start a business in France (or anywhere in the west), especially if you're an immigrant or outsider, the important bonds of family and their difficulties, and how different people integrate with each other. Instead, this movie speaks about nothing. The characters are all selfish and cruel or just plain pathetic. The scenes go on ad nauseam and the director doesn't know or simply chooses not to edit scenes for brevity, so what should have been a 90 minute movie, turns into a 160 minutes exercise in audience torture. Is it really ever necessary to watch a character carry every single pot from a car to a building? No, of course not! We're intelligent beings, we can make the leap in judgment. Unfortunately, the director doesn't think much of his audience and everything is painfully detailed and examined, while revealing nothing, to the point where it takes 60 minutes to even get to the part of the story where the lead character even decides he wants to open a restaurant - a plot point that is meant to be key to the entire story. Meanwhile, were enlisted to sit through 90 minutes worth of unnecessarily long scenes of mothers shouting at and belittling their children, a woman dancing to distract drunken patrons, and old man running in circles, etc.Add to that a script where the overall plot was written out, but the dialog was largely improvised and all you have is a disaster.What did I learn from this movie: white french people all racist, all Arab men cheat on their wives, all Arab women are cruel to each other and anyone who's not a member of their family, all Arabs are unreliable and incompetent in business, and Arabs are probably just as racist as the white people and would love to take advantage of them as they themselves are taken advantage of by the whites, but they're just not very good at it. And everyone's a mean-spirited gossip.In other words, this movie is a compilation of clichés and stereotypes.None of the characters are likable, though the lead is by far the most likable, if only because he barely speaks, so he doesn't make as great a fool of himself as the others do (other than literally running in circles to his death).In the end, making decisions is an important aspect of any work of art, but especially writing and movie-making. I wish those involved with this movie had actually made a decision.

This movie reminds one very much of Fellini and his family situations with one very big difference. There is a striking clash and interaction between cultures and social position. But beyond this obvious distinction there is a total difference in the perception of time noted with annoyance by many reviewers. This is a very important factor in the directors considerations-he doesn't give a fiddlers well hoop for the distressed Europeans not to mention the Americans who will find many parts long, extended, drawn out, whatever. Thank God this is not financed by American money and that the French gave him free rein. A WONDERFUL WONDERFUL FLICK.