7.5/10

First time writer/director Jon Stewart presents us with a first hand look of policies and rising tensions in Iran in 2009. On the eve of the biggest election in Iran’s history, Rosewater is based on The New York Times best-selling memoir “Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival,” written by Maziar Bahari. . Rosewater follows the Tehran-born Bahari (Gael Garcia Bernal), a broadcast journalist with Canadian citizenship. In June 2009, Bahari returned to Iran to interview Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who was the prime challenger to president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As Mousavi’s supporters rose up to protest Ahmadinejad’s victory declaration hours before the polls closed, Bahari endured personal risk by sending footage of the street riots to the BBC. Bahari was arrested by police, led by a man identifying himself only as “Rosewater,” who tortured and interrogated him over the next 118 days. Stewart does a lot of things correctly here. For his directorial debut, “Rosewater” shows his interest in telling this story that somewhat began thanks to Stewart. Bahari was a guest on “The Daily Show”, and the Iran counterparts saw this and believed him to be an American spy. Stewart has definitely done his homework on Bahari, complimenting his story with POV camera angles, and powerful acting that lifts the film right off the pages. Between the editing and camera work, this film could certainly use a couple of Oscar nods for the on the ground action going on in front of us. The viewer feels like they are in the streets when the corruption regarding the election hits. Bernal also deserves a word of mention as the main protagonist. He plays Bahari with such innocence and fragility that we feel for what this character is going through. With time going on in the film, i actually witnessed Bernal physically becomming Bahari. Many times i had to remind myself that this was an actor playing the role, he was just that good. For a lot of the film, i felt this was a strong 8/10 and could even venture into my top twenty films of the year list, but when looking back, i saw some amateur mistakes on the part of Stewart. The first was that the film had a blatant undertone of comedy. Now, i don’t mind the way the comedy was used during the first act because it’s supposed to show how ridiculous Iran’s accusations and questioning of Bahari are. My problem was during the third act of the film when the comedy is used for no reason other than to make his time in the prison go by smoother. An example of this is a sex crazed officer questioning Bahari about all of the women in his cell phone. He starts to accuse Bahari of being unfaithful to his wife, so Bahari gets the idea to lie about some sexual conquests he has as a result of these phone numbers. I get that it’s supposed to make his questioning easier, but as the final twenty minutes ends the film, i find out this has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with anything in the story. If it helped him with an escape, i could understand that. Even worse, the comedy ruins the heart pounding pace that the film had built itself up on to that moment. You can’t help but laugh during this scene, and this film should never even dare flirt with a comedic side for such a serious story. The other thing that bothered me was lack of information from what’s going on outside of the prison. We get one news piece on CNN of Hilary Clinton establishing a mission to rescue Bahari, but up until that point we are left in the dark. How did anyone find out about Bahari’s capture? What was the reaction like on American soil? These are the questions that deserved to be answered, but seem unimportant in Stewart’s script. Overall, i think it’s a great first effort for The Daily Show’s own anchor, and i would be interested in seeing future films from him. He clearly has an original presence behind the camera, and with time he will fix some of the mistakes that plagued this film. “Rosewater” is definitely recommended for the liberties that we take for granted everyday with our choices never having consequences unless they are illegal. For all that people complain about, we are the lucky ones to be here in this day and age. Bahari showed us that freedom still has a long way to go in other parts of the world.