Good local color, notwithstanding the warping wide-angle lenses, of an Arab suburb of Paris in the post-9/11 era. The breathy, blond, angelic temptress who moves into the neighborhood with her narrow-minded, broad-hipped guardian would not be part of that palette. Her relationship with the sensitive one in a gang of four (the would-be writer and never-been reader: "It's amazing how long it takes to write. I had no idea") progresses rather slowly after the strong come-on of their first encounter -- "Do you want to see my pussy?" -- and her delivery on her offer. That and the dragged-out tease thereafter (tactfully depicted by director Ziad Doueiri) register as moderately hot on the erotic thermometer. The brutal heart-tugging of the climactic plot turns can be resisted not so much on emotional grounds as on logical ones. They don't follow. With Vahina Giocante and Mohammad Khouas. (2004) — Duncan Shepherd
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