*** (out of four)
Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal isn't Iranian. "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart previously had neither written nor directed a feature film. But "Rosewater," Stewart's filmmaking debut that stars an effective Bernal as real-life Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari, gets a lot more right than it does wrong.
It's set in 2009, when Bahari returned to his homeland to report on the election for Newsweek and eventually wound up in solitary confinement for 118 days. Stewart has fun playing with some comedic aspects of the Iranian government's nonsensical questioning of Bahari in prison. His tormentor (Kim Bodnia) accuses him of being a spy, using as evidence an interview that Bahari did with "The Daily Show""senior espionage correspondent" Jason Jones. In the video Jones identifies himself as a spy; therefore Bahari too must be a spy. Responds the incarcerated man, whose captor doesn't realize "The Daily Show" is meant for laughs: "Why would a real spy have a TV show?"
Clearly, this isn't "Zero Dark Thirty." The abuse Bahari experiences is more psychological than physical. He passes the time by thinking of his father and sister (who were imprisoned and tortured years before) and eventually concocting a pretty hilarious lie to amuse the man whose visits are referred to as "specialist time." Stewart fails to intimately explore the emotion of Bahari's imprisonment, often amateurishly doing a slow zoom on supposedly powerful moments. It's hard not to wonder why we don't see what Bahari's pregnant wife (Claire Foy) is doing or get a clearer sense of the international attention that sparks a turn in the incident.
Still, "Rosewater" is a better document of journalistic courage than the recent, overrated Edward Snowden doc "Citizenfour." Adapting Bahari and Aimee Molloy's book "Then They Came For Me," Stewart's film showcases political corruption-fans of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, this is not your movie-and a tonally daring, sometimes thoughtfully conceived look at an unusual story that's only five years old but is likely unknown to many "Daily Show" fans. His show is a great place to get the news, and it's no surprise (yet something of a relief) to see that Stewart has something to say behind the camera too.
Watch Matt review the week's big new movies Fridays at 11:30 a.m. on NBC.
mpais@tribune.com
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