Themes of cultural identity and disunity figure prominently into the work of director Rachid Bouchareb, including 2006’s Days of Glory and 2011’s Outside the Law, both of which were nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Academy Awards. Bouchareb’s English language debut, Just Like a Woman, however, is a phony female fantasy — a minor chord variation on Thelma & Louise with none of that film’s panache, verve or insight. Instead tone-deaf and at times downright insufferable, this road trip flick in which bellydancing holds the key to feminine enlightenment most notably begs the question of just how long into its 90-minute running time it can go before someone inevitably says, “Just feel the music and let your body decide — it’s all about sensuality.”



Recently axed Chicago secretary Marilyn (Sienna Miller) has a loutish, philandering husband (Tim Guinee) straight out of Central Casting, so it takes but a slight nudge to get her to follow the advice of her evening bellydancing class instructor and light out for Santa Fe, where, you know, there are those open auditions coming up for that great traveling bellydancing company. Egyptian-American Mona (Golshifteh Farahani, above left), meanwhile, lives with her shopkeeper husband Mourad (Roschdy Zem) and bitch mother-in-law (Chafia Boudraa). Marilyn and Mona are initially little more than casual acquaintances (the former stops in occasionally for soda and cigarettes), but after a domestic accident leaves Mona questioning her future with Mourad, the two women escape their unhappy marriages and hit the open the road. There they, like, learn about friendship and stuff — by way of racists at RV parks and creepy club owners who book same-night, traveling freelance bellydancers.

Thrice-nominated for Oscars, Bouchareb conceived of the story for Just Like a Woman himself, but pulled in Joëlle Touma and Marion Doussot to collaborate on the screenplay, presumably in an effort to give it some sort of estrogenized bona fides. The tack does not work, alas. Bellydancing specifics aside, the lame, wearingly familiar plotting feels like it was assembled from the aforementioned Thelma & Louise, pamphlets from a women’s shelter and a very stupid and condescending episode of Law & Order, centering around an ethnic minority community. Most damningly of all, though, the film doesn’t allow for a meaningful exploration of a deepening, substantive female friendship. For the full, original review, from ShockYa, click here. (Cohen Media Group, R, 90 minutes)