Monsieur Ibrahim Review
by Susan Granger (ssg722 AT aol DOT com)January 5th, 2004
Susan Granger's review of "Monsieur Ibrahim" (Sony Pictures Classics) A young Jewish boy and an elderly Muslim bond in French writer/director Francois Dupeyron's adaptation of Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt's novel which also became a play. Set in Paris in the 1960s, it's the cross-cultural story of a lonely, emotionally abandoned adolescent and the kindly neighborhood shopkeeper who adopts him as the son.
Living on the shabby Rue Bleue in Place Pigalle, Moses (Pierre Boulanger), nicknamed Momo, is so eager for his first sexual experience that he breaks his piggy bank to get the necessary coins. (Look for sex goddess Isabelle Adjani in a cameo.) Meanwhile, Monsieur Ibrahim (Omar Sharif), known as "the Arab" although he's a Koran-reading Muslim from Turkey, not only supplies him with daily groceries but observes his engagingly naive behavior, becoming his mentor and commenting: "If you have to steal, I prefer you do it in my shop." Gradually, their relationship grows and they take off for the Mideast in search of adventure.
Now at 71, Omar Sharif - best remembered from "Doctor Zhivago" and "Lawrence of Arabia"- still has a vitality that dominates the screen, his dark, wide-set eyes transmitting emotion far more eloquently than dialogue. On the other hand, his wry words of wisdom, although clichés, are filled with pithy philosophical phrases like "What you give is yours forever. What you keep is lost for all time." For that reason, perhaps Francois Dupeyron can be forgiven for what amounts to a somewhat abrupt and contrived conclusion to this coming-of-age parable.
In French with English subtitles, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Monsieur Ibrahim" is a life-affirming, sentimental 7, and the '60s soundtrack is worth saving.
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.
