Awesome Movie

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Given the importance of a free press and the direction of the much- loved John Stewart, you just wanted this movie to be more entertaining or, at least, thought-provoking. Unfortunately, it produces both in somewhat limited quantities. Stewart, who clearly does snark on an Olympic-level does excel here at showing the ridiculousness of the Iranian charges against the Time reporter they imprison, beat and torture. He shows the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regime to be petty, out-of-touch and trying to stay in power by fighting the previous overthrow of the Iranian government which did involve the involvement of the West to install the former Shah of Iran. Of course, covert CIA operations have long since been replaced by the coordinated actions of ground-level young people using Twitter and the deep web to coordinate. Stewart demonstrates these realities well and provides a realistic portrayal of the tactics used by these particular torturers (which resemble those used by torturers through history and geography). The movie just feels more like reportage than drama and the reporters eventual release isn't quite the end of "Shawshank Redemption". In short, still worth seeing if you enjoyed "Syriana" or a have a particular interest in global politics or history.

Rosewater is a thought provoking film about Canadian/Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari who is detained by Iranian secret services and is subtly interrogated under suspicion that he is a spy. I have seen it described as torture but it's quite clear he wasn't really physically tortured , arguably he was mentally . Directed by The Daily Show's , Jon Stewart . This is more about how social networking and modern forms of communication are bigger than dictatorships and how that when the word is spread it , people just can't disappear which would have happened previously. Some great performances from Gael García Bernal and Kim Bodnia make this a really good film. 7 out of 10

The book "Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival" by Maziar Bahari and Aimee Molloy relates a true incident based on the imprisonment by the Iranian government of journalist Bahari who made an off hand remark against the President of Iran on The Daily Show and was considered to be a spy when he returns to Iran to cover the elections in 2009 and captures videotapes of the uprisings. The very keen screenplay was written by Jon Stewart who also directs.Gael García Bernal is excellent as Maziar Bahari as is Kim Bodnia as his interrogator Javadi (called Rosewater because of the cologne he wears that is the only identifying aspect the constantly blindfolded Bahari can recognize). The elections are between incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mir-Hossein Mousavi and the friction and devastation of the Tehran following Ahmadinejad's narrow victory and it is this point that the film heightens and informs us of the fragile state of affairs in Iran. The supporting cast is quite fine – Dmitri Leonidas, Shohreh Aghdashloo and others. This is a very well made film that is part docudrama and part fictionalized history and Jon Stewart impresses as a director. Grady Harp, April 15

I am trying hard to rack my brain to see if I remember the events of the film, Rosewater, surrounding Maziar Bahari, and everything than went on and happened to him during that period. All this happened just a few years ago (2009 to be exact) and I do seem to remember the Iranian election and the uproar and protests that went on afterwards, but unfortunately Bahari's story still remains a blank in my memory. This is not because the story is not important, but rather because I used to watch a lot of political and topical news on various channels over the years and sometimes if you watch it everyday, you just see so much different information and stories and sometimes it is hard to remember all the details, or all the events that happened. For this reason, I am glad that I had the chance to go and see Rosewater, because obviously it is history, even though being recent, it is something that I do not remember, so I am glad I was introduced to this film and to Bahari's story, because it is an important one. The film is based on the book "Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity and Survival" by Bahari, and if you watch the end credits of this film, you can see that he had a lot of connections and consultation to this film. The film's screenplay and direction is from Jon Stewart, of television's The Daily Show, of which just recently, Stewart announced that he would be leaving from. If you watch the film and do a little bit of research on it afterwards, you can definitely see why Stewart wanted to make this into a full length movie and not just a segment on his television show. Some would even be of the opinion that Stewart's program could have been a further instigator and certainly did not help Bahari's situation when he was imprisoned. Perhaps that is why Stewart took time off from doing his television show. In my opinion, I think he thought this was a story that definitely needed to be told and to also honour and in some ways apologize to Bahari, for the events that led up to his arrest and detainment. Stewart's loyalty and respect for him certainly comes through during the film and you can tell that he certainly thinks a lot and very highly of Bahari. I have never watched The Daily Show before, mostly because I had no interest in it and I think usually the humour they employ on the program (it is a satirical news program for those who have not seen it) is usually more democratic, or left leaning and I was personally afraid of it being a bit too biased, so on those accounts I stayed away from it. I have seen Stewart in some films before as well as when he hosted the 2006 Academy Awards, which unfortunately for Stewart did not turn out too well (although I was massively ticked off also that Crash, won that year over a handful of other worthy films), so that maybe had to do with some of my dislike for the year's awards ceremony anyhow. Back to Rosewater though, Stewart shows that he is a very capable writer and director and he does a good job on both accounts here. The film casts Gael Garcia Bernal (an actor who I have liked and enjoyed since his performance in Y Tu Mama Tambien) as Bahari and he does a very good job here. As does Kim Bodnia, who plays an interrogator who gives the film it's title name. The film is fascinating as it recounts these true events, but still makes them fresh and interesting whether you remembered a lot of these events happening, or were unbeknownst to them like I was. It all unfolded like a fascinating drama and the film certainly kept your interest and you really wanted to see how everything turned out at the end and I think the same would be true for people who are familiar with the story as well because of the strong filmmaking in front of and behind the camera. In Stewart's screenplay, he very wisely avoids all types of melodrama, which I think was the right choice here. Had this film been melodramatic the emotions you grow to have with the characters, would have felt more forced than something you feel for them because you like and grow to care for them and that just would not have worked. Fortunately also, I did not detect a strong political bias to the film, so for those who hate biased, or one sided storytelling can breathe clear, because the main message here is about freedom and how certain atrocities still go on around the world and we need to be aware of them, but at the same time the film does not feel like it is lecturing us, or telling us what to think, or even clearly demonizing anyone, or anything, but rather just tells the story facts and all. I found the two strongest characters to be Bahari as well as Kim Bodnia's character of the interrogator. Even though you are not rooting in any way for Bodnia's character, I found him to be a fascinating man and there seems to be more going on than what is first obvious and you can almost detect that he has his own fascination, or even to a small degree, respect, for Bahari and their interactions play out beautifully because of the strong writing and also the top notch performances from these two men. Having now watched Rosewater, I do consider it to be a film of importance and deserves to be seen and have it's story told.