Cairo Time – 5

     A showcase, if not vanity project, for Patricia Clarkson, the movie stands or falls on how you view her character’s actions. We’re handicapped by not knowing much about where she comes from and what her husband is like, until it is too late. But existing in a kind of vacuum doesn’t excuse her blithe ignorance of her surroundings – walking into a men-only coffee shop, walking down the Cairo streets showing cleavage, hopping onto a bus to Gaza without guidance or help. I didn’t see Siddiq Ali’s lure as lover (but the women I was with did). So without a compelling romance or an understandable central character, all that was left was a formulaic travelogue, in which each scene was too obviously designed to show off a Cairo tourist attraction – mosque, felucca, souq, pyramids, etc. I’m only surprised they didn’t go to the Cairo Museum to see King Tut.