Deception's Secret Surprise

I ran into a little gem while I went through my parents' modest DVD collection. Among Arabic films and saint stories, I came across a film called Deception starring Andie MacDowell, Liam Neeson, and Viggo Mortenson. This film is the U.S. edited version of Ruby Cairo (movie poster on the left)— leaving out 20 minutes of the original film, including an explicit love scene between MacDowell and Mortenson, on the cutting room floor.

The plot centers on the recently widowed Bessie Faro (MacDowell) on a mission to systematically collect her husband‘s (Mortenson) secret stash of money in bank accounts all around the world. However, when she reaches Berlin, she finds that someone else has recently withdrawn and closed some of the accounts. With the help of Dr. Fergus Lamb (Neeson, who is also photographed alongside MacDowell in the movie poster on the right), spokesman for "Feed the World," she finds herself in the middle of Cairo to find some answers. What she eventually finds out is her husband isn’t dead at all, but alive and in the middle of a massive scandal.

It’s not the greatest film to grace the silver screen, but what I found interesting happens about an hour in—chapter 10 of the DVD entitled, “What’s Your Secret?” The setting: A liturgy in “The Hanging Church”—a Coptic Orthodox Church in Old Cairo, Egypt. In the background, the priest is swinging the shuriya and a deacon with the Bible and a cross making their circuits around the altar. We’re watching the couple as they are attending the liturgy. Prior to this scene, MacDowell’s character visits Neeson’s asking rather evasively, “What’s your secret? Do you say your prayers?”

Neeson takes her to the church and responds to her question during the liturgy by saying: “Most of these people have been here all night. They pray until they drop. You wonder where they get the strength to carry on, but when you’ve been here long enough, you soon see where it comes from. They’re all taking care of someone poorer than themselves. There’s real charity here. These people know about things the rest of the world has forgotten. They know how to pray and they know how to look after each other. That’s why they smile so much.” He goes on to describe how he used to be a hot-shot oil tycoon in the Gulf with a million dollar house and fancy cars. He became a drunk—“drinking a bottle of brandy a day.” Towards the end of his litany and the lowest point of his existence, he turns to her and says, “Well, these people saved my life.”

Who would have thought the Coptic people would be his big secret? Now, if we could only make an appearance in a box office hit, we may have something here.