MONSIEUR IBRAHIM

Product Description Screen legend Omar Sharif (Hidalgo, and such classics as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago) is Monsieur Ibrahim, an elderly widower who owns a grocery store in a shabby, working-class section of Paris. His life takes on new meaning when he befriends Momo, a lonely teenage boy (Pierre Boulanger). In Ibrahim, Momo finds the father he never had, a patient man infused with kindness and a wisdomthat he freely shares. And Momo awakens within Ibrahim a taste for grand adventure, which takes them on a journey that will change their lives forever. Amazon.com Some crowded Parisian atmosphere and the burnished presence of Omar Sharif make this coming-of-age tale a pleasure. It's the early 1960s, and an adolescent Jewish boy (Pierre Boulanger), mostly left to his own devices by an ineffectual father, makes friends with the worldly wise Persian man (Sharif) who runs a small neighborhood grocery. The kid's fumbling experiences with sexual curiosity are the reliable stuff of many a French movie, but the unlikely friendship of young Jew and old Muslim make for an offbeat through-line. Francois Dupeyron's film shifts gears in its final section, moving from its flavorful location and into the wide-open spaces, and it goes on too long with too many pieces of advice. But overall this is a warm and winning experience, with Omar Sharif holding an instructive class in the power of understated movie-star charisma. --Robert Horton