Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

ReganRebecca Nadine Labaki's debut features has a lot of the trappings of a typical rom-com but it eschews the stereotypical neat ending of the genre to become something more. Featuring a cast of non-actors (led by Labaki who takes on a leading role) the movie revolves around a group of women working in a beauty parlour in the Christian district of Beirut. Each woman has a problem with their love life and the other women in their circle help them along. Beautiful actors, great music and warm tones make this movie great to watch.

james-mag85 always love these beautiful foreign movies, Nadine Labaki has made such a beautiful piece of art showing feminine side of beautiful and romantic land of Lebanon. loved the way nadine labaki has shown different women from different religions but same culture of co- existence in Lebanon. loved the scene when traffic warden gives a visit to her beauty saloon. he looks kinda cute in that scene...while nadine labaki with her very dominating and beautiful eyes was looking so gorgeous.I hope she will keep making such beautiful movies showing different life styles of Lebanese people.

raamraam Director,leading lady Nadine Labaki is highly talented and very charming. the characters are true to life and the situations are interesting. The seamstress Rose and her customer are very well portrayed and all the girls with their fads and fashions shine with Lyale standing out. Congratulations to Nadine. Hope to see more of your films. The wedding cake business of both the girls is not only interesting but metaphoric. The day to day activities are brought to life in a very beautiful way. Grown up girls and their problems in society have been well brought out with charming episodes. No where does the film have any boring or sentimental asides to disturb the spectator.All told this definitely is a new and pleasant experience.

bob the moo Centred around a beauty shop in Beirut, this is the story of five friends and colleagues, their lives and their relationships. Layal is stunning but seems oblivious to the attentions of a local policeman as she focuses all her efforts on a doomed relationship with a married man. Nisrine is engaged to be married but is concerned about her husband discovering she is not a virgin. Rima runs the beauty parlour and stays out of such emotional messes but finds herself drawn to a dark-haired customer. Jamale is older than these three friends and struggles to audition for acting roles against much younger and fresh women. Rose is older again and finds confusion when she experiences reciprocated feelings of love from one of her customers.Caramel came to the UK on the back of quite a lot of nominations and discussions of it being "one of the best foreign films" of the year. Fortunately I had forgotten this until after I watched it recently and it was a good thing too because I do not think that the film really deserves such chatter. It is understandable that it got it though because the film is accessible, engaging and quite charming and generally when this occurs in a foreign film it gets it exposure and, with exposure, hyperbole. So, OK it doesn't deserve the tags it got but this is not to say that it is a bad film because it is actually a very enjoyable little piece that is as charming as it is slight. The plot will be familiar to anyone who has watching Waiting to Exhale or any other film where a group of female friends have a central place/relationship that pulls them together while the film follows each of them in a different thread. When I have seen this done it does have a tendency towards mawkishness and corn, I guess because the makers figure that this is what the target female audience want.Caramel doesn't do this though. Yes it has emotion but it never feels forced or false and it comes over with charm and ease. It doesn't build to big weepy moments but rather has a consistently quirky appeal that I enjoyed a great deal. The stories are not heavy in detail but this helps them slide along with a nice smoothness that again compliments the feel of the film. The cast do well because they all deliver solid characters without ever tipping into easy melodrama or pushing it too hard. Labaki has the character that would be most likely to go this way but she holds it back and instead delivers a sympathetic and engaging lead. It helps that she is stunning as well. Equally stunning is Elmasri and she gives a bit more Iin the way of comedy in her role. Moukarzel has a "difficult" character when you think about it but she does well with a tomboyish charm and makes the most of her few scenes with her customer. Aouad doesn't have the looks to rely on like the others but her harsh character gives way to moments where her real feelings come through and it is easy to feel for her. Haddad isn't given much time to work with but she is good and her thread makes for a sweet ending to the sweet film.Like the title suggests, this is a very charming and sweet film that avoids melodrama or "big" emotional moments in favour of a lighter tone that makes it much more accessible and enjoyable.