Couscous

A very dusappointing film. Far too long and rambling, the director seemed unclear of his purpose or the point he was trying to make. Set amongst the North African community in a port in Southern France it centres on a dysfunctional family. They seem to be constantly arguing, being unfaithful, the women are universally haradans or victims, the men cheats, liars, lazy and worthless. So what's not to like? The length (nearly three hours) to describe the setting up of a restaurant on a boat with redundancy money was just tedious, because you knew from the start that the central character would be systematically let down, betrayed and humiliated by the two families he's involved with - and thereby proving to the native French that the North Africans have nothing to offer. Surely there's more to this community than this film would lead us to believe. Rating - a grudging 4/10