I didn’t sleep well last night, but the movie viewing of A Hero was worth the sleep deprivation. While I’m sure this weakness is not solely Sagittarius, I especially related to the movie’s main theme of no good deed goes unpunished. As demonstrated recently in “Red Rocket”, an emotionally engrossing movie always provokes me into talking to the characters on screen possessed to do something more active than cringe and squirm. THAT is superior movie making folks.
I’ve been a long time Asghar Farhadi fan and A Hero ranks as one of his best. I doubt he even realizes he does this, but his slow roll into his films gives us foreign to Arabic language enough time to settle in to the subtitles by presenting the Iranian world. Having actor Amir Jadidi (superb as the humiliated faced main character) climb multiple flights of stairs in a construction project to greet his brother-in-law gives us ‘spoiled’ Americans all we need to know. Living in the Middle East is work, without a lot of luxury.
But what Farhadi does best is deliver a finely braided moral conundrum, with humans troubled on such conflictual levels that you can empathize with all and precisely why I didn’t sleep well. My brain was still attempting to wrap its puny self around and even problem solve, for all parties involved.
All the actors were totally realistic and believable. Since most do not have photos on IMDB, it’s tough to name them all, but Mohsen Tanabandeh, was also notable as the vindictive former father-in-law.