The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

When Hassan (Salama) becomes
helpless in his quest for the virtuous, perfect girl of his dreams, he refers
to his best friends Bimbim (Edward) and Donia (Mona Halla) for help. The three
friends work together in a radio station called ‘Sotna’. On
the other side of the spectrum is Laila (Shalaby), a colleague of the three and a writer, who is searching for her knight in shining armour. An idealistic romantic,
she hopes to find a husband who matches her profile of the perfect man.

With
the assistance of her more open-minded friend Farida (El Lozy), Laila and
Hassan finally meet at a nightclub. After a few drinks, laughs and the help of
their respective friends, they seem to hit it off. Crisis hits when the radio
station’s star presenter and love doctor (Ali) suddenly disappears, leaving the
show’s manager Mr. Azmy (Labeeb) with no other option but to hire Hassan as an
alternative relationship expert. Wary at first that he will be a
complete disaster at giving advice he doesn’t actually take, Hassan
surprisingly pulls it off and has a hit show as the new love doctor.

Eza’et Hob
suffers from countless weaknesses: the plot is blatantly predictable, the acting
is heavily exaggerated, and the moments of comic relief are so forced that they’re
painfully corny. It’s hard to imagine that this poor effort of a film could be
entertaining to some audiences out there, as it seems to fail on every basic
element that filmmakers study at school. The only brief moment of humour comes from
Shadi Aly, a little known actor who plays the radio station’s love doctor and
gives hilarious insight to what really goes on behind the scenes at a
radio station.

The film’s cast get equal time on
screen, which could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look
at it. Thankfully, you don’t get too bored with one character, as the attention
shifts to other characters every five or so minutes.

The main problem with Eza’et Hob is that the two leads Salama
and Shalaby lack the star power of major actors like Ahmed Mekky and Ahmed
Helmi, who bring in the audiences by the droves. Plus, Salama and Shalaby’s
chemistry is not at all believable, making their romance seem awkward.
This is quite surprising for Shalaby, who is by now a seasoned actress with
many films under her belt and is known for her on-screen charisma.

Eza’et Hob feels like a rushed
product that may insult your intelligence with its slapstick comedy and
half-hearted acting. The only aim of this film seems to be to capitalise on the
summer season and make as much as possible out of nothing.