Monsieur Ibrahim Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)November 11th, 2003
MONSIEUR IBRAHIM
Reviewed by: Harvey S. Karten
Grade: B+
Sony Pictures Classics
Directed by: Francois Dupeyron
Written by: Francois Dupeyron, novel and play "Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran" by Eric-Emmanuel
Schmitt
Cast: Omar Sharif, Pierre Boulanger, Gilbert Melki, Isabelle Renauld, Lola Naymark, Anne Suarez, Mata Gabin, Celine Samie, Isabelle Adjani
Screened at: Sony, NYC, 11/10/03
During my long career as a high school teacher, I've repeatedly heard this said by colleagues: "There's really not much you can do with these kids once they reach high school. They're set in their ways. If you want to affect them, you have to get them in elementary school, maybe even earlier like in the Head Start program." Are they right? I suppose for the most part, you're already dealing with people whose character and attitude toward learning are set in stone. Not so the 16-year-old in Francois Dupeyron's "Monsieur Ibrahim," a coming-of-age tale about a kid who had long ago been abandoned by his mother and who is psychologically deserted by his chronically depressed dad. You might expect him to be a criminal with that background, and technically, you'd be right, but on a small scale. Moses (Pierre Boulanger), or Momo as he is called, is a nice Jewish boy who occasionally shoplifts in the local bodega- type grocery store in a down-and-out Paris neighborhood during the 1960's, but that's about the limit of his descent into antisocial activities. Oh, and his being Jewish is significant, though he is entirely secular, because he is fortuitously developing a relationship with the store's septuagenarian proprietor, the title character and a Muslim (played by Omar Sharif yep, the guy who was the fierce tribesman ally of "Lawrence of Arabia").
In a sense, "Monsieur Ibrahim" follows the overall theme of the play based on a story of Dan Jacobson, "The Zulu and the Zayda," about a friendship that blooms between a Jewish grandfather and the black servant engaged to look after him in South Africa. A major difference is that while Jacobson's characters exchange cultural views, the grandfather learning Zulu expressions while the caretaker is taught Yiddish, Ibrahim and Momo are strictly in a mentor-mentee relationship, even while the giver of wisdom gains as much from the boy as does Momo from Ibrahim.
A joyous story which turns tragic as the trajectory takes us on a road-and-buddy excursion from Paris through Switzerland, Albania, Greece and Turkey, "Monsieur Ibrahim" opens on a virtually orphaned teen whose father (Gilbert Melki) signals his depressed state by turning off the radio when entering the broken-down apartment and regularly comparing his son unfavorably to an older brother who disappeared years earlier. Momo is attracted to a redhead Myriam (Lola Naynmark) about his age living across the street in this predominantly Jewish neighborhood, loses his virginity to one of the hookers stationed just outside, and is looked after kindly by the entire band of prostitutes who patrol the block. His life changes dramatically, though, when he begins chatting with Ibrahim, a wise man who advises him how to deal with his dad on a strict budget (get him cat food and tell him it's pate and mix the cheap wine with the Beaujolais) and assures him that he's aware that the young man pockets cans of food on the sly. Ibrahim, who rarely asks Momo about the boy's life but talks to him of the importance of the Koran and of his village in "the Golden Crescent," ultimately engaging the lad in a cross-Europe excursion that more than most other films of the genre proves the adage "travel is
broadening."
Filmed on location in Paris and Turkey, Francois Dupeyron's tale could serve as another small nail in the coffin of the legitimate stage, which has allegedly been dying for decades, a victim of the greater freedoms that can be taken on the silver screen. Though Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt's play was performed at one of New York's more prestigious off-Broadway theaters, the staged rendition, however well-reviewed, was primarily a monologue from the point of view of a Jewish adult who recalls his childhood and the remarkable influence on him of a caring old man. The movie, however, is vastly opened up with a signature '60's soundtrack including "Rock Around the Clock," "Sunny," "La Bamba" and other songs of both English rock and its French counterpart known as le yeye. "Monsieur Ibrahim" is a delightful story well deserving of the audience award it garnered at the Venice Film Festival.
Rated R. 95 minutes.(c) 2003 by Harvey Karten at
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
