The Yacoubian Building

The title of this Egyptian import refers to a Cairo apartment complex that was deemed the height of luxury when it opened in 1934, but is now in a state of advanced disrepair. Whether that can be considered an unsubtle analogy regarding contemporary Egypt is up to the viewer, who has to endure over two and a half hours of melodramatic soap and shenanigans that make Aaron Spelling's oeuvre seem like the Merchant-Ivory canon. Based on the bestselling novel by Alaa Al Aswany, director Marwan Hamed's The Yacoubian Building packs in as many Egyptian taboo-busting characters and situations as possible, including a homosexual affair between a journalist and a soldier, a fundamentalist who takes on a second wife but forces her to have an abortion, two separate stories of maladjusted young men embracing Islamic extremism, and various women who yearn for respect from the bully-ish men who dominate their lives. The film also features drug addiction, prostitution, and none-too-thinly veiled slams against government corruption, but it lacks credible writing, compelling performances, or a genuine purpose outside of generating shocks to the Egyptian system. Not a necessary purchase. (P. Hall)