The Waiting City review by Variety...

When a Sydney couple travel to chaotic Calcutta to collect their adopted child, the drawn-out process strains their already fragile marriage in the uneven drama “The Waiting City.” Quasi-mystical second feature from Aussie helmer-writer Claire McCarthy (“Cross Life”) lyrically presents the many faces of India and the country’s strong spiritual appeal through Western eyes. But despite convincing thesping and vivid lensing, the pic undermines its grip on viewers with annoying gaffes in plot and character logic and odd shifts in tone. Pic will open on home turf next year, but foreign exposure is likely limited to fest dates and ancillary.

Arriving in Calcutta sans some of their luggage, high-powered lawyer Fiona (Radha Mitchell) and her laid-back musician hubby Ben (Joel Edgerton) quickly get a taste of what it’s like to operate on Indian time. After getting little satisfaction at the baggage claim (“This is India,” a tired worker proclaims), they face an irritating wait for their hotel-dispatched driver, Krishna (Samrat Chakrabarti).

Things don’t go smoothly with the adoption, either. As the agency continues to put off their appointment, long-unresolved relationship issues start to surface. Fiona and Ben ultimately grate on each other’s nerves to the point of separation.
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The Waiting City review by The Hollywood Reporter...

The journey looks like an overly familiar one as “The Waiting City” begins. Westerners confronting, then being rejuvenated by the mysterious East is by now a cliche. Yet Sydney-based writer-director Claire McCarthy proves too smart to fall into that trap. She appreciates and, even better, understands the power Indian spiritualism can have on foreigners, and so has made a persuasive, intimate account of a couple’s encounter with the subcontinent.

By this description alone, you understand this is no “Monsoon Wedding” or even “City of Joy.” While the film’s grip on a viewer dramatically increases as the story moves deeper and deeper into an experience that exposes a couple’s troubled relationship, McCarthy makes no concessions to commercial considerations. The film is solely designed for festivals and art venues but word of mouth should help “The Waiting City” reach a receptive audience.

Radha Mitchell and Joel Edgerton play a 30-something Australian couple, who comes to Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) to claim an adopted daughter, Lakshmi. Red tape delays things so they are forced to wait in this exotic and often trying city.
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The Waiting City Toronto Info...

The Waiting City will see its premiere at the Toronto Internationa Film Festival. Here’s some info about the movie:

To adopt a child is to wait, and to wait in a city far from home can be an exciting thing – or a test of all one’s resources. In the case of Claire McCarthy’s epic, glistening new feature, those on hold are a young Australian couple, Fiona (Radha Mitchell) and Ben (Joel Edgerton), who arrive in Kolkata to claim their adopted child.

Outwardly happy and connected, Ben and Fiona are nonplussed when they discover that their adoption arrangements have hit some bureaucratic snags, even when their Western-style problem-solving skills prove ineffective at helping the situation along. As they dig in for a long wait, they comfort themselves with the assurance that their new daughter Lakshmi, whose picture they have cherished for months, will still be theirs. So, they wait: Fiona works from her laptop while Ben ventures out into the city in search of new experiences and friends. One of these new-found acquaintances is Scarlett (Isabel Lucas), a girl whose easy acclimatization to the rhythms of Kolkata seems to match Ben’s own.

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