Rosewater is the directorial debut of The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, and it’s an appropriate directorial debut at that. The story of Maziar Bahari, a real-life Iranian-Canadian journalist who was arrested and tortured by the Iranian government, has very direct ties to Stewart himself: Bahari was interviewed on The Daily Show while correspondent Jason Jones was in Iran, and that interview was used as evidence against Bahari during his incarceration. Spoiler alert for a real life event that happened five years ago: He returned to The Daily Show for an interview soon after he was released from prison. Bahari’s exceptional story—and Stewart’s own personal connection to him—turned into something of a passion project.
So how does Stewart do in the director’s chair? Admirably. The pace is brisk but never breakneck, and it’s well shot with a few especially memorable scenes. Interestingly, the first act falls halfway between a drama and a documentary in its presentation. It's a dramatic movie, fiction, that tells a real life story. Rather than recreating scenes of riots and the like, Stewart just uses actual archival footage of the actual events to set context. While some may consider it lazy to just reuse existing footage rather than going through the trouble of reconstructing those scenes, I think it adds to the realism of the whole thing. Yes, this really happened, and yes, events like this continue to happen. The film does tend to over-explain itself, however, and leaves very little to subtext. There’s more than one particularly egregious example of that tendency, with hashtags and tweets flying around the screen in one sequence and unnecessary bits of narration in others.
This shouldn’t be surprising given the director, but Rosewater is also very funny. Bahari’s torture is grueling, even without necessarily showing everything in graphic detail, and Stewart takes any opportunity he can to alleviate the psychological torture with brief spots of humor. And, Jon Stewart being Jon Stewart, those moments of humor are laugh-out-loud humor, so much so that Rosewater nearly turns into a black comedy in its third act. Gael García Bernal also turns in a fine performance as Bahari, a man who is cautious to engage in the political conflict in Iran both because he’s aware of the clear lines in the sand drawn by the regime and because he has a loving wife and a baby on the way.
Rosewater is a solid political drama. While it doesn’t innovate in any notable way or add anything new, it tells an important story and shows that Jon Stewart certainly has a knack for feature filmmaking.
Grade: B
This shouldn’t be surprising given the director, but Rosewater is also very funny. Bahari’s torture is grueling, even without necessarily showing everything in graphic detail, and Stewart takes any opportunity he can to alleviate the psychological torture with brief spots of humor. And, Jon Stewart being Jon Stewart, those moments of humor are laugh-out-loud humor, so much so that Rosewater nearly turns into a black comedy in its third act. Gael García Bernal also turns in a fine performance as Bahari, a man who is cautious to engage in the political conflict in Iran both because he’s aware of the clear lines in the sand drawn by the regime and because he has a loving wife and a baby on the way.
Rosewater is a solid political drama. While it doesn’t innovate in any notable way or add anything new, it tells an important story and shows that Jon Stewart certainly has a knack for feature filmmaking.
Grade: B
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