The movie “Nabil El Gemayel, a beautician” by comedian Mohamed Heneidy began showing on December 28, to become already No. 1 at the box office during the first two weeks of this January, even after another Egyptian film joined this competition, which is "Shalabi" by Karim Mahmoud Abdel Aziz.

On the other hand, the audience's opinions on social media criticized the film and were very upset, and asked questions about how Heneidy could get out of the trap of successive modest cinematic experiences.

This is a comedy movie, but I dare you to laugh or smile. From the beginning of the movie to the end, I have a feeling of shame and unease, and I say what are you sitting forward?


Believe me, my words are trying to make it simple without being too harsh, but this is the worst movie in 2023 from now on,


and it makes your mood bad #Nabil_Jamil_plastic_specialist pic.twitter.com/VSDAaODxGx

- omar 🎬 (@omarmohammed40) January 13, 2023

Unrelated characters and events

The story of "Nabil Gemayel, a plastic surgeon" is also from Heneidy's ideas, and the film is written by Amin Gamal and Mohamed Mahrez, directed by Khaled Merhi. Doctor Alia's love makes his life more difficult until his problems are miraculously solved.

After that, the filmmakers are confused because the solution came prematurely, so they decide to present another obstacle, which is a "prank" made by his rival that almost ends his career, but chance once again stands by the hero of the film, to survive and win the girlfriend and almost everything else.

In this paragraph that briefly introduces the story of the film, two major coincidences appear that change the course of events, but in the work itself there are dozens of others. The scenario itself is based on these illogical events that offer artificial solutions, such as the rise of an African leader whose life Nabil Gemayel saved - despite being a plastic surgeon - by rewarding him with a suitcase full of hundreds of dollars;

This is the solution that the filmmakers found to end Nabil's problems, a solution that cannot be accepted in a movie from the fifties of the twentieth century, let alone a movie shown in 2023.

The scenario's problems did not stop at coincidences and illogical solutions. Rather, some characters and events could be completely omitted without spoiling the organic fabric of the scenario, which should be like the human body that breaks down if one of its organs is lost.

For example, the character of Sambo (actor Mahmoud Hafez) - the thug whose face the doctor treats after multiple quarrels - appears several times, none of which has any effect on the events of the film or the plot, as this is a character that no one knows why it was presented within the events.

Critic Andrew Mohsen makes a note about the travel of a main character and her return without this event providing any benefit to the film, and the same applies to many other details in the work, as the script writers did not take into account that it became more than just scenes and characters without a link that made two hours but 10 minutes of attempts. Failed laughter.

Heneidy's wit is lacking in good choices

The phrase "Achieving success is easy, but maintaining it is difficult" cannot be applied to Heneidy's career. Although he appeared almost since the mid-eighties of the last century in small roles, he was forced to wait until the end of the nineties for his star to shine and become one of the forefront of a new wave in Egyptian cinema in the decade. The first of the third millennium, in a march that seemed like an unstoppable train, great success in cinema and theater, and Henedy became the icon of modern Egyptian comedy.

Theoretically, Mohamed Heneidy is still this icon, but in practice, with a simple tracing of his career, we find a significant decline after one decade of his success, and the starting point for this decline can be considered the movie "Prince of the Seas" in 2009.

And from one modest project to another, such as the movie “Antar Ibn Shaddad” in 2017, the appearance of Muhammad Heneidy decreased, which could have been justified by his search for distinguished cinematic projects, but after silence, he only comes out with films such as “The Man and the Mongoose” and “Nabil Gemayel, a beautician.” , which is only bolstered by the actor's popularity on social media due to his already light-hearted accounts and heavy promotion.

These modest films depend on the charisma of Mohamed Heneidy and his ability to laugh, and although both of them are real, they are not enough to make a movie succeed. Perhaps this was the case at the beginning, with viewers’ eagerness for different works from Adel Imam’s comedy that has been on top for decades, but as soon as the stage ended The freshness of Mohamed Heneidy’s work until it turned, in just 10 years, into a repetition and echo of previous successful works that perhaps need a more careful study to explore the reasons for its success if it was due to societal changes among the recipients more than its quality itself.