Rosewater

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: John Stewart/Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Dimitri Leonidas, Ayman Sharaiha and Nasser Faris

Based on the book Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity and Survival by former Iranian/Canadian Newsweek Journalist Maziar Bahari, Rosewater is The Daily Show's Jon Stewart's directorial debut and as one might expect, he chose a politically-charged story as his subject matter.

Bahari, on assignment for Newsweek to cover the 2009 Iranian presidential debates and election, found himself a target of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime. Ahmadinejad's government's anti-opposition agenda consisted of arresting, imprisoning and torturing all those who challenged the legitimacy of the election. Bahari discovered later that his journalistic activities were surveilled during his stay and were given a subversive spin by the government.

Stewart's film, though high-minded, is hardly tedious but it is an insipid adaptation that often seems more of a slog than a hard-biting account of Bahari's experiences. It is surprisingly dull, given Stewart's lively, political satire on The Daily Show. If Stewart expects us to be shocked that a journalist--even one Iranian-born--would be incarcerated and denied due process in the Muslim world, or anywhere despotism reigns with impunity, I'm afraid his film has arrived about twenty to thirty years too late. I don't think a story about Bahari's arrest can shock us now, especially when ISIS executes journalists and westerners on an almost weekly basis.

But Stewart tries, as does the ever-excellent Gael Garcia Bernal, who plays the Iranian journalist.
Bahari leaves his pregnant, British wife behind in London to pursue his story on the elections and along the way he meets the voting youth of Iran; those who support the ferociously conservative Ahmedinejad and those who back the progressive, reformist campaign of Mir-Hossein Mousavi. After meeting a Mousavi supporter named Davood (Dimitri Leonidas), the two become friends and join the teeming crowds gathered in the street to celebrate what is expected to be a sure Mousavi victory.

When the televised voting results begin to report a clear Ahmedinejad victory, the same crowds take to the street to protest what they believe to be a rigged election.

Days later, Bahari is woken from his bed at his mother's house by the police and arrested on the spot, though no formal charges are leveled against him. Bahari is blindfolded and thrown into prison, where he occupies a cold cell with only a small, circular hole in the roof for sunlight.

His interrogator is Blue-eyed Seyyed (Ayman Sharaiha); who enjoys a reputation for his skill in meting out physical and psychological torture. Seyyed is given a mandate by his superior, Haj Agha (Nasser Faris), to elicit a confession from Bahari.

Denied contact with his wife, his mother and the outside world, Bahari's incarceration stretches into months. He hears others being beaten and tortured, which fuels his anxiety and fear. Because Haj wishes Bahari to confess on television for propaganda purposes, he insists that Seyyed not beat him or cause injury to his face. But Bahari endures psychological torture in the form of questioning and threats relating to his wife and unborn child.

During his months in jail, he imagines begin visited by his father and sister; two family members who also suffered imprisonment under older Iranian regimes. While his father was jailed by the Shah of Iran's government in the 1950s', his sister Maryam was arrested during Ayatollah Khomeini's rule. Strange that he is visited by his family but not his beloved wife, who he fears he will never see again. I would imagine his wife would make a more comforting companion, but I guess frequent visits by familial ghosts better serve the film's political themes.

But Bahari's main nemesis is boredom, for he is denied books, magazines or anything to distract him. And aside from one scary threat tactic Seyyed employs to intimidate Bahari, little else in the way of torture or physical cruelty is visited upon him. After Bahari makes a video confession of his alleged crimes, he is still detained and when Haj orders him to be beaten, Seyyed expresses some reluctance that may be construed as compassion.

Later, after months of detention, Bahari discovers his imprisonment has become an international media news item. Even Hillary Clinton calls for his release, which all but assures him an imminent pardon.

As expressed before, Rosewater is pretty weak stuff. I never felt Bahari's life was really threatened and Stewart does little as director to establish an edgy atmosphere of dread or suspense. Bahari's experience comes off as more a bummer than a frightening human rights violation. Stewart's camera work is competent, literal and adequate.

I wish Gael Garcia Bernal had more to work with. I've seen him perform exceptionally with even the most modest scripts but here he is asked to do little but miss his wife and worry a little about his life.

I understand Stewart needed the actors to speak in accented English to attract investors but it robbed the film of much credibility and was a distraction.

I'm sure Stewart probably thought he had a powerful story to tell but the mere fact that Bahari was incarcerated shouldn't be the film's selling point. The onus is still on the director to make us give a damn about a jailed journalist in a hostile, Muslim country. And therein lies the problem; I just didn't give a damn (a sentiment I apparently share with Rhett Butler). If Stewart wants to tell a compelling story about someone like Bahari, then he must compete with the emotional intensity of network news and YouTube videos, which capture the immediacy and urgency of such events better and more economically.

I certainly don't want to dismiss his film categorically but stories like Rosewater work better as documentaries, in spite of Bernal and Stewart's efforts. Maybe films like Stewart's have become redundant in a world of where raw video footage of ubiquitous acts of barbarism are more camera-ready and widely disseminated.

Really, let's be honest; if one were gazing up at a multiplex marquee menu to see Rosewater offered alongside other films like Interstellar, Birdman, Gone Girl and Nightcrawler, which film would you rather see? I myself am spared such a choice because I've seen all the aforementioned films and I make it a point to see every film release humanly possible. But for the rest of you--my movie-going brethren (and sistren), I'll make a suggestion: avoid the one beginning with the letter R.