Rosewater (2014)

Decent debut from Jon Stewart.The true story of Maziar Bahari, an Iran-Canadian Newsweek journalist who went back to Iran in 2009 to cover the national elections. Once the despot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the incumbent, wins the Presidency, protests breaks out. After filming and reporting on the election and protests, Bahari is arrested, imprisoned and tortured.The first film, as director, for Jon Stewart, of The Daily Show fame. He also wrote the screenplay, adapted from Bahari's book "Then they came for me". A good place for Stewart to start as he knows Bahari well and had interviewed him many times on The Daily Show. Plus, Bahari's light-hearted interview with Jason Jones on The Daily Show is used against him during his arrest.An interesting story, though doesn't really cover any new ground regarding freedom and how despots treat their people. Not a very compelling story, for this reason. Stewart pretty much covers the story in linear, blow-by-blow fashion, with the only departure from this being that the first scene is Bahari's arrest, and then we go back in time to see what lead to it.Solid work from Gael Garcia Bernal in the lead role. Supporting cast are fine too.A good enough start from Jon Stewart. He had a story he wanted to tell, and he told it. With experience and confidence he'll get better at telling stories in movie form.

Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari is detained by Iranian forces who brutally interrogate him under suspicion that he is a spy.In a sense, this is sort of the companion piece to Ben Affleck's "Argo". Another story involving Canadians and Iranians, only this time in the 2010s rather than around 1980. And we see that in some ways, things never change.More films on Iran need to be made, just as more films need to be made in Iran. No country is more misunderstood by Americans, I would bet. While the government may be draconian at times, the people are good, loving people. We must not blame a people for their government.

Many years ago an Iranian journalist called Maziar Bahari was interviewed by Jason Jones as part of a bit for the Daily Show. When that same journalist was later arrested and held for supposedly being part in a Western-led coordination of protests against the Government, this section of the show was a part of the evidence used against him, since it appeared to show him meeting with a spy. As a viewer of the Daily Show, the repeated mentions of the film made me interested to see it – not to mention that the time away from the show for Stewart already had the bonus of helping John Oliver get his own show over on HBO. Anyway, the story, and the chance to see the outcome of this period away for Stewart, made me interested to see it when it finally reached the UK or a limited release.The film opens with Bahari's arrest, and then flashed back to the events in Iran that led up to this, including the aforementioned interview. As a structure it is interesting because it does fill out the events at the time, and also some of the history of the character's family (which also serves as a way of accessing the recent history of Iran in some small ways). In the telling there are a few rather clumsy devices in there, and also at times a strange mix of drama and humor; not all of it works particularly well, and the second half of the film specifically seems a bit too earnest and straight in its telling. The torture and detainment toys with showing the horror, and also showing the boredom, fear, and longing, but all of these things are played equally and as a result it seems a bit too "normal" in terms of delivery. As the film progressed the more it became about events, and when the detainment is continuing, there are not so many "events" to engage, and surprisingly I found the film a little padded and lacking in edge and emphasis in the second half.The use of foreign actors to play Iranians has been mentioned, but generally whatever their nationality the cast play the roles well within the confines of Stewart's direction. Garcia Bernal is a good presence in the lead role; likewise Bodnia works well in the second half – although neither really get to make a huge impact due to the slight flat or sincere tone of the film. Supporting turns are solid from Aghdashloo, Leonidas, Bilginer and others – albeit again, some of them are rather hampered by what the film is doing. Technically the film looks good, and has some good shots, but it does consistently lack an impact – particularly in the second half (which is really where it should have enabled some great scenes between Bodnia and Bernal).It is an interesting film, but not a wholly successful one. The first half is event driven and engages as it tells a personal story with links to a much bigger one, but the whole second half of the film lacks impact and emphasis – feeling a little bit too earnest and surprisingly lacking in a clear voice as to what it is telling.

The movie presents quite an imbalanced story as a whole. The story building is quite brilliant by starting off from the arrest. It then develops very nicely by backtracking and restarting from London. But then when it reaches the point of the actual imprisonment days, the movie really lacks the suspense and dramatization that it needs to top out that story built. The prison days lacks very much the intensity that prison scenes should have. Even with the blindfold element, the scenes don't really seem intimidating. The Javadi character is depicted with a contradicting nature of being rigid but also kind of afraid of his inmate, even this can be exploited for adequate suspense. The acting overall is quite nice. Gael Garcia Bernal played out smoothly as an Iranian. Dimitri Leonidas, Haluk Bilginer and Kim Bodnia each played their roles well enough to complete the needed story angles. and