NO GOODDEED GOESUNPUNISHED MOVIE
Gradually, Mary develops a cult following of Sarah Palin’s “real Americans” & the movie unwisely aims for social satire, think Billy Wilder’s classic media critique Ace in the Hole, as performed by the cast of Hee-Haw. The rest of the movie is just this sad, desperate woman stalking Steve & his crew (Thomas Haden Church & Hangover ’s Ken Jeong) across the country from one media mini-circus to the next. The next day’s crossword puzzle is, um, all about Steve & apparently makes it to print without a single other person having looked it over. Horowitz is all geek, all the time, from her shiny red vinyl boots to her overstuffed noggin & when her parents (Howard Hesseman & the ubiquitous Beth Grant) set her up on a blind date with the titular Steve ( The Hangover ’s Bradley Cooper), a studly cable news correspondent, she immediately begins to drool (I wish I were kidding) & offers the poor frightened sod all Mary Magdalene Horowitz has to offer. It's proof there are still films out there that don't rely solely on familiar IP or CGI-enhanced superheroes.Sandra Bullock, sporting Juliette Lewis’ hair like a yeti scalp, plays Mary Magdalene Horowitz, the Jewish-Catholic cruciverbalist (hey, I’m not your mother, look it up!) for a Sacramento newspaper that’s apparently never heard of crossword puzzle syndication. This is the type of feeling one chases after when watching many, many movies. It's almost like a revelation a feeling that I never expected to feel again. I've grown so accustomed to the cookie-cutter approach of Hollywood movies that I found myself almost constantly knocked off balance by "A Hero." Just when I thought I had a handle on where this was all going, Farhadi would introduce some new wrinkle that completely recontextualized everything that came before.Īnd gosh, how nice it is to be so unprepared. It can be very easy to become jaded in this line of work, where I watch many, many movies and feel confident I can predict where they're headed. When something like "A Hero" comes along and knocks me off my axis, it's thrilling. The fact that Farhadi never takes sides makes "A Hero" all the more remarkable. When he begins poking holes in Rahim's story and pointing out that Rahim is fond of trotting out his son, who has a stutter, to garner sympathy, there's plenty of logic in his words. Rahim seems like a genuinely good guy and Bahram seems like a total jerk at first blush, but as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that things aren't so black and white. Instead, the more we learn about the situation, the more difficult it becomes to pick sides. There's a cheesy, awful Hollywood-ized version of this story where all the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad, where we're rooting for Rahim's freedom and booing Bahram every time he appears on screen. But that's not the case here. He thinks the whole "found gold" story is an act - and even if it isn't, he bristles at the idea of simply forgetting about the money he's owed.įarhadi takes his time laying the groundwork here, and "A Hero" unfolds in a manner that has the viewer constantly reappraising the situation. If Bahram were to, say, forgive the debt, Rahim would be free. He holds the power to decide how much longer Rahim will stay imprisoned. And no good deed goes unpunished - if it was even a "good deed" to begin with.īut not everyone thinks of Rahim as a hero. Bahram (Mohsen Tanabandeh) is the brother of Rahim's ex-wife, and, as it turns out, the person to whom Rahim is indebted. In Asghar Farhadi's fascinating, complex "A Hero," nothing is simple.
It's a selfless deed, especially for someone who badly needs money, but it seems like the right thing to do. But then he does a curious thing: He decides to return the gold to its rightful owner. Rahim seems amenable to the idea, too, and even gets the coins appraised.
NO GOODDEED GOESUNPUNISHED FULL
But during his two-day leave, a potential miracle presents itself: Farkhonde discovers a purse full of gold coins, and immediately sees a chance for Rahim to finally be free. He speaks longingly about finally getting out of prison for good, but he can't do that until his debts are paid - and it seems like it would take a miracle to come up with the money. When we first meet Rahim, he's out of prison for a two-day leave, an occurrence that enables him to reconnect with his family, including his girlfriend Farkhonde (Sahar Goldust) and his son (Saleh Karimai).
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