“Rosewater” is the nickname journalist Maziar Bahari (Gael Garcia Bernal) gave to his captor during his 118 days in solitary confinement after being falsely arrested for espionage following the 2009 Iranian election. John Stewart‘s directorial debut of the same name tells the story of the few days leading up to Bahari’s arrest and the days in solitary that follow. The “Daily Show” host manages to tell a competent enough story, but it has issues with tone as he can’t seem to entirely abandon his satirical approach to politics, while also wanting to tell a dramatic story. It’s by no means a bad film and actually quite interesting in that it makes me wonder if Stewart just might have the chops to take a fully satirical look at such a situation and how much more entertaining and equally poignant such a film could be.
For the most part, Rosewater is a safe first outing for Stewart. At one point Bahari’s personal driver (he drives a motorcycle), Davood (Dimitri Leonidas), chooses to join the protest following the controversial re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Bahari pulls him back, afraid of what may happen to him. Davood responds, pointing at Bahari’s camera and saying, “You have a real weapon and choose not to use it.” It’s standard, “heat of the moment” movie dialogue and while it gets the point across, the screenplay, which Stewart wrote based on Bahari’s book “Then They Came for Me”, isn’t exactly thinking out of the box, but Stewart does have a special weapon… Gael Garcia Bernal.
Bernal has so much charisma and personality his character is easy to cheer for, though the tension of the film is somewhat lost considering we know what comes of Bahari following his imprisonment. This isn’t to take the situation lightly, but, as one of the characters in the film says, “I forgot how boring prison was.” All I could think when he said it was, “Yeah, it sort of is boring.”
However, Stewart is trying to do a lot more here than simply tell the story from Bahari’s perspective. The film seeks to tie us to Bahari’s captor, known only to him as “The Specialist” (a strong performance from Kim Bodnia) and the man he nicknamed “Rosewater”. As much as Stewart seeks to focus on the injustice that’s befallen Bahari, I wouldn’t exactly call his interpretation of “Rosewater” as sympathetic, but it isn’t as if he’s portrayed as an individual that takes pleasure in what he’s doing.
Another approach Stewart takes is to decide to shoot the film in English, something he’s most likely going to come under fire for, but it’s clear he hopes to reach the widest audience possible. He even attempts to “speak” the language of a younger generation in a rather corny sequence where social media hashtags blanket the Iranian landscape in the same way they might in an AT&T commercial. Another scene in which Bahari gives us the back-story on his family is presented as he walks down the street and the walls of the buildings as he passes come alive, reflecting his inner monologue while the voice of his deceased father echoes in time with what he’s saying. It’s rather cheesy and is one more example of the tonal issues the film faces, but sometimes he gets it right.
One of the primary reasons Bahari was imprisoned was due to an interview he did with “The Daily Show’s” Jason Jones (appearing here as himself), in which the comedian, pretending to be an American spy, jokes with Bahari, eventually resulting in an interview used against him in prison, asking why he would speak with American spies. The scene is an interesting addition to the movie, offering not only a glimpse at what it might be like behind the scenes of Jones’ ridiculous interviews, but offering the chance for an interesting bit of satire once Bahari is questioned about the appearance — “Why would a spy have a TV show?” he asks his captors, there is no answer.
I enjoyed Rosewater, primarily because I’m a fan of Stewart’s show and am in tune with his sense of humor and political coverage. He clearly feels a close tie to Bahari’s story in that his program is actually tied to the story, and he treats it with heartfelt emotion, but perhaps some distance and a lack of personal familiarity would have benefit the project as the overall film falls a little flat. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting debut and I’m curious to see if he continues down this path and if so what he’ll take on next.
