When I joined MS, one of my first reviews was on ’Ten Best Adapted Screenplays’.
I would include this film in that list (which stopped at 7) but with some reservations.
The film is good but stops short of being brilliant. What is notable is that it is for director Vadim Perelman, his first directorial venture and he does a commendable job.
I will carry on from the review of the book which I posted some time back.
Massoud Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley) ex-colonel in the Shah of Iran’s Airforce is struggling to live the American dream. He works a day job on a road crew laying asphalt and a night job as a gas station attendant. He notes every expense down to the Snicker bar he has.
He aim is to return his family to the days of comfort they had before the Ayatollah’s chased them from Iran.
Kathy Nicolo (Jennifer Connelly) is a recovering drug/alcohol addict who is served a notice by the county for not paying taxes, evicted from her house and her apartment auctioned off.
She is helped to move by Deputy Lester Burdon (Ron Eldard) and they get quickly into an affair result of which Burdon leaves his wife and two kids.
Kathy and the colonel are morally correct as far as each of their positions are concerned. Its the character of Burdon who causes the equation to go out of balance.One thing leads to another which finally concludes in the tragic end.
The highlight of the movie and as well as the book is that it does not seem to favour one party over the other.
But all said and done, I shall repeat that for a directorial debut its a pretty good piece of work.
The screenplay overdoes the parts where one sees the fog moving in from the sea.
It could have done a bit more in the area of character development since those who see this movie without reading the book may not understand the motives of the charcters with the exception of Behrani.
All the performances are good, right from Jonathan Ahdout who plays Behrani’s son Esmail to Shohreh Aghdashloo who plays his wife.
Burdon’s role could have been done by another better actor. Ron Eldard just manages to hang on to it.
Jennifer Conelly is also good but the standout of the film is Ben Kingsley.
He is perfect as the Iranian colonel. Throughout the film we see him with his back erect even in the face of adversity. His accent and delivery is too good.
All in all a good film but don’t watch it if you don’t like depressing movies.