aformenius

After being a long term resident in dubai i feel that the movie touched on some key aspects. although city of life did resemble movies such as crash i feel this was a huge change from the rest. Where it was similar was that it followed multiple main characters and their stories converged in more than one case. but the difference was that the movie at hand touched on a world that has not been portrayed properly to the outside world. Many people have heard the stories of dubai about the money and the cars and the houses, but this movie not only displayed that but also showed how the culture affects all of this. In the case of the story line of the local emirati, I personally felt that it showed an aspect of the young emirati's that is not shown normally to the rest of the world. Although there is some cultural taboo's shown in the movie, the core values of the culture are still represented. such as loyalty and respect for one's family. in today's media the 'arab' world is extremely mis-represented and i feel that this movie shed an extremely positive light on it. I also feel that the movie represented the split of classes in the UAE very well. There is a clear split in the classes of people in the UAE. although it is not always bad, it is present in day-to-day life. The Split between and Arab male, a European expat Woman and an Indian Expat male was portrayed very well in the film. I don't want to make this review sound like a puff piece that just compliments the film so i will name some negatives to balance it. The movie didn't focus heavily on some aspects of UAE life. The fact that all the stories ended happy made me feel like the film was a little bit Hollywood-ized. although it was a fantastic ending to the film and an end to an extreme emotional roller coaster, i feel that the movie maybe should have also had one story that didn't end happily. This would have shown viewers that even in this city of life, there are people who don't get their happy ending. That being said, in hind sight i would not have wished the director to chance the ending of the film as personally i did love the film in its entirety!