“Mr. X” is a fantasy plot that generates laughter, but appends revenues
Comedy is the most famous color in which Egyptian cinema excels, given the audience’s need all the time for a dose of entertainment with which it forgets its worries, and the lightness of the Egyptians makes it obvious to a people described as “the son of a joke.”
And through dozens of comedies since the beginning of the millennium, the follower can lay his hand on a number of defects, including the adoption of jokes and “alibis” as a major source of laughter even if they are disconnected from the dramatic construction, and their omission does not affect the context of the work, as well as the weakness of the story and the inability of the script to Pushing automatic ironies, which pushes the whole work to fabricate and fake, and finally the comic hero’s narcissism that makes him take over the public space of the work.
According to critics and observers, the movie “Mr. X”, which is currently being shown in Egypt, is liberated from some of these shortcomings, as it presents a funny, satirical story that seems closer to the spirit of fantasy, but is capable of naturally eliciting laughter.
This plot revolves around “Mr. X”, who establishes a secret organization that provides a unique and unprecedented service represented in helping every man who wants to divorce his wife to achieve the dream of his life in a safe manner while completely preserving the confidentiality of “clients” data.
Film poster (producing company)
The story written by Amani Al-Tunisi, and worked on in the script and dialogue by the director of the work, Ahmed Abdel-Wahhab and Amjad Al-Sharqawi, provided an opportunity to create many spontaneous situations free of fabrication due to the organization’s dealing with many stories and different complaints.
These stories involve funny situations, such as a wife who is able to turn a hero with scary muscles into a meek lamb, and another who practices marital infidelity with society celebrities by the logic of hobby.
Ahmed Fahmy, who embodies the character of “Mr. X”, did not take advantage of the idea that the work is sold in his name and imposes itself on all scenes, just as his wife, the artist Hana Zahid, was dealt with with professional logic without any courtesies in the space of her role. A lawyer meets “Mr. X” and many funny situations happen between them.
Guests of honor played a remarkable role in the film, such as bodybuilder Big Ramy and sports presenter Ibrahim Faeq, as they were employed in the fabric of a drama that, according to the story, needs multiple characters and separate stories.
Akram Hosni is considered the most influential of these, as he appeared as an eccentric “maestro” leading a musical group that is no less strange than him, whether in its appearance or in the nature of the art it presents.
And in the context of hiring the guests of honor in a different way, the artist Amr Youssef was treated in a fantasy way, laughing, as representing the old “handsome” version of the artist Muhammad Osama “Aws Aws”, before he was involved in a traffic accident that made him lose the handsomeness of the blond man, and made him in this current form that is devoid of handsomeness.
The similarity in features between the artist Amir Shaheen and his sister, the star Elham Shaheen, was also employed in a funny way.
On the other hand, critics and followers stopped at some of the negatives, which were represented in resorting to a number of comments and “al-faiths” that are not appropriate for family films, and the film should have been classified as addressing the audience over 18 years of age, in addition to the slow pace in the second half of the work, unlike the other half. The first one was fast.
Ahmed Fahmy’s last work was the series “Sarah Al-Bati'”, which was shown last Ramadan by director Khaled Youssef, and it was a group championship for a number of actors, including Ahmed Al-Saadani, Hanan Mutawa, Khaled Al-Sawy and Hussein Fahmy.
Fahmy appeared in a social dramatic role, completely away from comedy, when he embodied the character of a young man from the countryside who loves a girl from Cairo, and together they seek to solve a number of mysteries between the past and the present.
Fahmy in a still from the movie (the producing company)
The name of the movie “Mr. X” plays on evoking the famous character previously presented by the pioneer of comedy in Egyptian cinema, Fouad Al-Mohandes, in the movie “The Most Dangerous Man in the World” produced in 1967, and bears the same name for the leader of an international smuggling gang that transfers its activities from Chicago to Cairo.
Despite the critical acclaim for the work, its appendix to the list of revenues for the Eid al-Adha film season is a remarkable paradox.
However, art critic Mohamed Abdel Rahman believes that “the decline in the revenues of the movie (Mr. X) does not come as a surprise, but rather it was expected for several reasons, including the strength of competition with the heroes of other films, namely, Karim Abdel Aziz, Tamer Hosni and Amir Karara.” He added to Asharq Al-Awsat: “Since Fahmy’s artistic separation from the duo Chico and Hisham Majed, he has not performed comic works with the same strength that characterized the old works of this trio. It also appeared from the movie’s promotional video that the work does not address the family because of some scenes and comments, which affected negatively on revenue.
And regarding the appendix of the film, the revenues of the holiday, art critic Ahmed Saad El-Din explained that “the strong romantic line that the filmmakers bet on through the love story between Ahmed Fahmy and here the ascetic did not appeal to the audience of the feast who wanted a purely comedic work or a popular hero who smashes his enemies with force in an action full of excitement.” And action.
Saad El-Din added, “Ahmed Fahmy suffers from a state of weightlessness, as he tried the colors of tragedy, crime, and serious drama, and did not achieve the desired success in them, as in the films (Casablanca) and (Al-Arif) and the series (Serra Al-Bati’), far from the comic color that he is famous for.”
