The lack of laughs, expositional dialogue and dull cinematography mar top satirist’s Iranian jail drama Rosewater, writes Paul MacInnes.
Master TV satirist Jon Stewart’s directorial debut, about a journalist jailed in Iran, is well meaning but there aren’t quite enough laughs to prevent it from being dreary on the eye.
Speaking to packed auditoriums and hailed by adoring crowds at last year’s Toronto international film festival, Stewart was treated more like a movie star than a satirist.
Rosewater is the story of the journalist Maziar Bahari who, while covering the Iranian elections in 2009, was imprisoned for 118 days by the Ahmadinejad regime. He was ultimately freed, but only after a publicity campaign that inspired an intervention by the then United States secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. Put simply, it’s not a story with a lot of laughs.
See full review by Paul MacInnes, with trailer, in Mail & Guardian
