An Egypt Affair (2024) Film Review
Regardless of budgetary issues, the scope of the production itself, and even the genre, if you’re willing to take a step further and bring to life a story, at the very least, you have to try and make an interesting movie. There’s no doubt that Marlin Darrah, director of An Egypt Affair, is trying his best to make an interesting movie. The film is a product of passion. However, passion isn’t enough. At some point, during the making of your movie, you have to stop and ask yourself if what you just did is actually good. And not only to yourself, but to everyone who will see the final result.
I can’t help but wonder if Darrah did this. An Egypt Affair accomplishes the basics of storytelling through a very linear plot that doesn’t require much effort from viewers trying to engage on the romantic thriller. The problem is that the story is actually much too complicated to present and solve in a matter of minutes, and in such a restrained setting. Again, sometimes it’s a matter of being self-aware of your limits and asking if the story is interesting enough to make a whole film. But other times, you should be able to observe the logic of every character arc. And that’s where An Egypt Affair crumbles.
In the film, Dylan Fontaine is enjoying the wealth of his father’s company. He’s married to Alexa, but the union is going through a rough patch, and Alexa believes a trip will fix this. The destination is a private cruise on the Nile, and they convince their friends Amber and Jake to go along with them. Everything is promising until the cruise captain, picks up another couple. Safiya and Darius are the new passengers on board, and Dylan is stunned by Safiya’s hypnotizing beauty.
What follows is a steamy thriller that will see Dylan trying to fight his primal desire for the beautiful woman, while trying to keep everything together in his marriage. Perhaps, the marriage isn’t the only thing that’s broken. Maybe, the moral compass is messed up and An Egypt Affair quickly becomes an adventure for justifying the fact that you can simply like someone else, and you have to try your best to be a good person while having an affair.
Eventually, the film arrives at a plot twist that sees Dylan’s integrity threatened by something unexpected. Now Safiya’s partner, Darius, isn’t his only problem. When the thriller part of the film takes over, Darrah insists on making the film an appealing tourists guide for Egypt and the tone gets more inconsistent. The other issue is when you try to unite Dylan and Safiya against every circumstance, when not even fantasy can eliminate the moral dilemmas of their union. They have to be “broken” after all the revelations made during a botched trip, and while love can save everything in the universe of movies, it’s pretty unbelievable that they can find love in such a rocky scenarion.
As an artistic display of Egypt’s wild beauty, An Egypt Affair can work. But not even the country’s singularity is strong enough for the dramatic story we’re supposed to believe in. Unfortunately, this time a work of passion does not resemble a solid vision.
