Dir: Nadine Labaki
With: Nadine Labaki, Yasmine Elmasri

WITH perfect timing given recent events comes this Beirut-set tale from actor-director Nadine Labaki. Layale (Labaki) runs a beauty salon where the speciality of the house is waxing with caramel. When she's not tending to customers' legs, Nadine is waxing lyrical about her own woes (she's involved with a married man) and inviting her customers to do the same. The characters are the usual band of stouthearted heroines suffering with a smile. Excellent when Labaki looks beyond the salon to focus on the local culture; otherwise, Caramel could be a saccharine chick flick set anywhere.