Nadine Labaki's new film is called Where Do We Go Now? but a
more pertinent question ask might be, "What was she thinking?" Labaki
made her directorial debut in 2007 with Caramel, a modestly scaled and charming comedy/drama that was notable for being a Lebanese film and
making no attempt reference the conflict that blighted the country for so long.
Perhaps that was the wisest decision Labaki could have made, because her second
film attempts to blend light comedy with political commentary, and it flounders
almost immediately. Labaki has bitten off far more than she can possibly chew
here, and Where Do We Go Now? is an indigestible hodgepodge of half-formed
ideas.
The film takes place in a small village somewhere in a
remote, mountainous region of Lebanon. Sectarian violence exists on the
outskirts of this isolated spot, but the women in the village do all they can
to stop news of it from reaching the ears of their menfolk, for fear the
conflict unbalancing the peaceful existence they have carefully maintained. The
tension that simmers underneath this façade is kept from bubbling over by such
tactics as provocative news articles being chopped out of the paper before the
men can see them, or the village's only television being sabotaged at crucial
moments. All of this is very silly and might sustain the plot of a half-hour
sitcom pleasantly enough, but Labaki is clearly trying to make a larger
statement with this film, and the message becomes hopelessly muddled in the
delivery.
Where Do We Go Now? suggests that there would be no war if
women ruled the world, and that appears to be the extent of Labaki's thoughts
on the matter. It may seem harsh to expect sharp political commentary from a
musical comedy, but a film that picks up these themes without actually having any
idea what to do with them inevitably comes off as infuriatingly facile. However,
what we are entitled to expect from a musical comedy is a few laughs, but
Labaki's broad style misses the mark every single time. She has her female
characters come up with various schemes to prevent their men from getting
involved in tit-for-tat acts of violence – such as faking miracles in the local
church and getting them stoned on hash cakes – but these comic scenarios are so
clumsily executed I just endured them until it was time for Labaki to finally
move on. By the time the women had decided to bus in a troupe of Russian
strippers, I decided Labaki had no idea what she was doing.
And yet, Where Do We Go Now? was the hit at the 2011 Toronto
Film Festival, receiving the Audience Award. Did those audiences not notice how
tonally schizophrenic the film was? Didn't the total lack of impact caused by
one character's death give them a moment's pause? Were they, like the male
villagers, distracted from the film's flaws by its breezy style and
Labaki's undeniable charms? Perhaps they were, but I saw nothing in this film
beyond a director floundering out of her depth. Labaki's debut may have showed promise,
but this picture has taken her nowhere.