Caramel: Review By Structure (ONSTRA)

This is a movie, that many of you never heard of, that made me clutched to my seat the whole time. i might've been in the most excited part of my american life while watching it and i admit it... as well as, that implied, another fact must be also put before i continue the review.. I am lebanese.. this is a lebanese production.. I am proud it made it to the american theaters.. and most of all.. I miss the country i am from.. so wait for a little bit of a TOO emotional review for the fact that i haven't been in my country for a long time and missing it implies on the fact that this movie, that might pass as just another movie to others, meant the world to me. And to talk the truth before talking facts, Anymovie that makes me this happy after watching it is a deffinite winner. if the acting was bad, the story was bad (but maybe intresting) even if the directing was bad, but it made me happy it is a winner in my book. now that fact that this movie made it to CANNES festivals and was the opening movie in there.. also it had critics talking about it in amazing praise.. put a little hope in my heart that the movie was actually good. But in the point of the movies start till the end of it, it made me compeletely amazed how good the movie was, it was a movie bigger than many hollywood productions in my mind. it infact reflected life in lebanon like never before. So the praise of the critics was right and I was right and I had no problem in enjoying the movie 3 times in a row at the same time and not get bored.. not one bit. so this is deffinitely a movie that deffined hugely lebanese cinematography, and made it shoot to the sky accepting the fact of its exceedence of many other movies in quality not in box office sales..

Wether it was the acting of Nadine Labake or the other that made this truely a believable movie, the movie's acting was solid and did not include any faults. it infact reflected how girls would be talking and what girls would be doing if they lived in lebanon. I lived there and i know how people right there act. and the fact that a person can act the way lebanese act is, trust me, a very difficult thing. but even though the lebanese blood was in them, it was very noticable that acting was a solid part of the reviews' credits.. wether it will be my review or the review of the other critics. Nadine had done such a good job pretaining her part, and all the other characters where able to show there part without exceeding the needed amount of emotionful faces, which usually occurs in many arabic movies. The very old lady had an acting part that made everyone laugh. wether you know arabic or you read the subtitles.. when you see her on the screen you'll laugh.. and if you don't laugh, it'll be because you'd be crying because of something that happened to her. She is lonely and anybody can see that, but she had a very tough part to act. she was the comic relief in the story and she had done her part pretty well. in fact I know that if I was in lebanon right now, looking at any old woman on the street crying the names of the small kids runnign or fighting over the small thing she wanted, I'll be looking at a person acting like this.. So saying that, i feel proud of all the actors in this production..

The theme of the story was lebanon. everything in lebanon.. even though seized by the story of the 4 girls that have a beauty salon in beirut, and even though it talks the story and problems of these 4 girls,, the main theme in the whole story would have to be lebanon. How everything is diffrent in lebanon. How the old fashioned way of doing things mix with the new way technology. whether it was releigon, Gays and what would happen to you if you are 47 years old and not yet married? what about the old people? what would happen if you were caught with your seat belt off? How rude can you be with officiers without getting caught? How much can you play with the fires of sex and love in lebanon? And a typical heartbreak stroy of the girl that lived after everything, through all of this hurly burly mess. The story does get emotionful in many momments, and it relays on the beautiful lebanese old kiddish songs to make you a part of it. its impossible to not fall in the characters of the story after watching the movie.. and after you fall in love with the character, you'll go through a stupid jounrey that will make you laugh cry and shed tears sometimes.. everything under control with the amazing directing that will be talked in the paragraph to come.

Since visuals were not really a part of the story, I'll move on to the directing. Directing was good and enough to make me feel home again.. walking down in the lebanese streets was something i wanted to do. and even though this shows the not so fun old filthy and garbage full streets of lebanon, it shows the society that lives in lebanon. It shows the society that was and still is in lebanon. the poor society of lebanon. Not to say that all lebanon is poor, because the healthy living full streets of downtown and many other places makes you feel like hollywood has a sister and that switzerland is in 2 places at once. but no this is lebanon, you can find both. and the director was able to follow the story's plot with the amazing directing and show the poor, dull part of lebanon pretty carefully. It makes your eyes completely amazed at the way he directed it. and the camera was never too far, never too close. Everything made itsway through perfecto test and passed. Not saying this is gonna be the best directing this world had ever seen. I am just saying that this world needs directors like these.

All in all, caramel made me cry. All in all the movie made me see the truth of lebanon again. and I loved it, in fact I needed it. A part of me, maybe not the critic part of me, but a very deepful part of me told me once i will regret the fact that I though that leaving lebanon might get me to some fun. and now i regreted it.. I wanna go back so badly and this movie gave me the abiltiy to transport form this emotionless country (again thats only for me because I wanna go back..) to my country. my tears flew out of my eyes.. and so my love for this might be one in a million. So the movie wether criticly or opinionfully makes me satisfied. and satisfaction makes me happy. So go and watch it, maybe you wont react as strongly as I did. but I can assure you that the movie will give you a small crack in the heart and will satisfy your eyes with the good production that will make you beg for more from lebanon. As for me, there will be the day that my heart will beat on the sands of my country again.. and I will fall down on my knees and scream a name that was I always screamed in my mind and soul. and I'd be kissing the hole in my heart goodbyes, that will comeback once I leave my heaven again.

** I did say it will get emotionful, didn't I **