Jawad’s engagement announcement gives Haya two incompatible jobs: look pleased for her best friend and conceal how badly his news has hurt her. Nour Al Ghandour makes that divided response an effective starting point for the romantic predicament in Love in Slow Motion. Haya has been approaching an admission of her feelings; Jawad, played by Ali Kakooli, announces a future with actress Zeina instead. The useful dramatic detail is Haya’s obligation to remain the friend he expects. Speaking honestly now carries a risk that silence previously allowed her to postpone.
Kakooli’s relaxed manner makes the exchange harder for Haya without making Jawad needlessly unpleasant. His ease belongs to someone comfortable in an established relationship, while her effort to preserve that comfort has suddenly become visible. Director Elie El Semaan gets useful tension from this imbalance. The engagement changes the meaning of their familiarity for Haya, but it does not instantly change how they behave together. She still has to occupy her customary place beside him while privately reconsidering what that place permits her to say.
Their teasing, shared jokes, and comfortable silences make the friendship convincing enough to sustain this problem. Al Ghandour and Kakooli suggest people who do not need to explain themselves constantly, which gives the screenplay something worth disrupting.
The audience can understand Haya’s attachment through the pleasure of their exchanges, rather than accepting it as a condition imposed by the premise. These scenes also establish what she could lose. A declaration might offer romantic possibility, but it could disturb a friendship that already provides affection and security. The familiar setup works because retaining the current arrangement is an understandable temptation.
Haya’s private video diaries give that temptation a practical outlet. She can describe her feelings, document her attempts to win Jawad’s affection, and admit uncertainty without exposing herself to his response. The recordings place the audience closer to her than the friendship allows Jawad to be.
They also give her awkward plans and unsuccessful encounters a useful second perspective: we understand the emotional purpose behind behavior that can look badly judged in the moment. Al Ghandour’s brightness has room to coexist with disappointment here, allowing Haya to remain funny without making her distress seem disposable.
The involvement of her sister Dalal, played by Shoug Hadi, adds interference to these attempts, but the diaries remain most interesting as evidence of Haya’s divided approach to honesty. She is willing to examine herself and reluctant to risk an answer. That distinction gives the device a character function beyond supplying explanations between romantic complications. There is something recognizable about becoming articulate in private while remaining evasive with the person who matters. Haya’s recordings let her feel that she is addressing the situation, even while the central conversation remains difficult to begin.
That arrangement also creates a pacing problem. Once the diaries have made Haya’s wishes clear, further planning and missed opportunities need to change her understanding or her relationship with Jawad. The middle stretch does not consistently supply that development. Her attempts keep the romantic predicament active, but the movement toward a decision becomes less persuasive than the initial reason for delaying it.
The diary is ready for the difficult conversation before the screenplay is. The leads remain pleasant company through this stretch, though their ease cannot give every postponement a fresh dramatic purpose. Predictability matters less than the sense that an already established problem is being kept in circulation.
The confrontation in which Haya questions Jawad about his feelings for Zeina offers a chance to move beyond that private rehearsal. It should put her ability to maintain the friendship under direct pressure. Yet the scene feels less charged than the earlier effort to appear happy for him.
Al Ghandour’s contained approach works well when Haya is hiding disappointment; here, the restraint makes the confrontation feel emotionally underdeveloped. We understand why asking matters without feeling the full difficulty of asking it. The scene has a clear function in the story, but the performances’ easy rapport does not automatically supply the weight required when their usual manner of relating is challenged.
The recording in which Haya considers placing another person’s happiness ahead of her romantic hopes exposes a similar limit. It gives her a meaningful decision, replacing the effort to secure a desired outcome with the possibility of accepting loss. The private format is appropriate: she can admit something she is not yet ready to make part of a shared conversation.
But the moment remains too measured to make that relinquishment hurt as much as it should. Her earlier recordings have established how much attention she has invested in getting closer to Jawad. Giving up that intention ought to alter what speaking to the camera means for her, leaving a harder task than explaining her feelings: deciding how to live alongside them.
Love in Slow Motion premiered globally on Netflix on July 23, 2026. Directed by Elie El Semaan, the Arabic romantic comedy follows a woman named Haya who begins to question her feelings for her longtime best friend after he suddenly announces his engagement.
Full Credits
Title: Love in Slow Motion
Distributor: Netflix
Release date: July 23, 2026
Rating: TV-14 / UA
Running time: 1 hour 31 minutes (91 minutes)
Director: Elie El Semaan
Producers and Executive Producers: Not publicly specified
Cast: Nour Al Ghandour, Ali Kakooli, Noha Nabil, Fatma Al Sherif
The Review
Love in Slow Motion
Love in Slow Motion establishes a friendship worth risking, thanks to Nour Al Ghandour and Ali Kakooli’s easy rapport. Haya’s private recordings give her romantic hesitation a useful dramatic form, but the screenplay too often substitutes further attempts for meaningful development. The heavier scenes also struggle to match the credibility of the lighter exchanges. An appealing relationship sustains the film through plotting that becomes less persuasive as its emotional demands increase.
PROS
- Convincing friendship and relaxed chemistry between the leads.
- Al Ghandour’s controlled response to the engagement announcement.
- Video diaries give Haya’s private uncertainty a clear voice.
CONS
- Middle-act complications prolong an established dilemma.
- The confrontation and sacrifice recording lack emotional force.
