'Rosewater' sprinkles humor, wit on Iranian prison tale

Jon Stewart, as any fan of "The Daily Show" can attest, is a really funny guy.

An experienced stand-up comic, he skewers politicians and their foibles, as well as the media that cover them, with a lacerating wit and a healthy appreciation for the absurd.

His debut as a director is something else again. "Rosewater" is serious stuff, based on the book "Then They Came for Me" by Maziar Bahari, a journalist who was detained in Iran and kept prisoner for 118 days, accused of being a spy. He was not. There is plenty of absurdity in the situation, which is one of the reasons Stewart says he was attracted to the book and wanted to make a film of it.

But as a director, Stewart seems doggedly determined that he and his movie will be taken seriously, and practically every second of the film reflects that. Not that it is without humor. There are some smiles to be had here and there, particularly after we've gotten to know some of the characters. But at every turn we are reminded that this is A Big Deal kind of movie. It's a good film, but eventually you'll wish we weren't reminded so much.

Bahari, played by Gael Garcia Bernal, is an Iranian national living in London. Newsweek sends him to cover the 2009 Iranian presidential election. So he leaves his pregnant wife behind in England and heads to his birthplace. He visits with his mother (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and, thanks to a young, hip cab driver (sort of) played by Dimitri Leonidas, taps into an underground network of young Iranians whose thinking leans more westward. The cab driver takes him to Dish University — a network of banned satellite dishes they've stashed atop a building. Through this setup they learn about the outside world, more than their government wants them to. Or allows them to.

They also know that the election, between the conservative incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the more progressive Mir-Hossein Mousavi, is going to be close.

Except that it's not. Ahmadinejad wins in a suspect landslide, touching off protests that evolve into the Green Movement. Bahari reports on all of this, until the day government goons show up at his bedside, rifling through the "pornography" he has stashed in his boyhood bedroom, like episodes of "The Sopranos." This is pornography? It is because they say it is, which seems to be the guiding principle behind their methods and motives.

Bahari is dragged off to prison, accused of being a spy for, well, several outfits; it seems to depend on whichever one his captors think of that day. For Bahari, this is especially painful. His father and sister had been imprisoned by previous regimes, accused of being Communists. We meet them in flashbacks and ghostly visits.

This is all interesting enough, presented in relatively straightforward fashion. But it's when we — and Bahari — get to know his main interrogator that the film is at its best. Bahari nicknames the man (Kim Bodnia) "Rosewater."

The man is certainly earnest but not particularly good at his job. He roughs up Bahari, but he seems to enjoy their exchanges, particularly when Bahari starts making up stories about visits to New Jersey, among other sordid trips. Everybody knows what goes on in New Jersey, Rosewater intones gravely, shaking his head. It's ridiculous and it's funny, and the more salacious Bahari's stories, the funnier Rosewater's reaction.

These scenes are well-composed and shot; it's just Bernal and Bodnia, often with Bernal in the front, facing away from Bodnia. Thus, Rosewater can't see the bemused look on Bahari's face. It's an effective tool, and a highlight of the film.

- Bill Goodykoontz, Gannett