A Hero - Movie Review

Critics Score - 8 of 10

General Audience Score - 7 of 10

For those of us from Western culture, the idea of having a man thrown in prison who owes another a large sum of money, seems a bit backwards. Why would you lock a man up and remove his ability to work and pay off his debts? Yet this is tragically something that is still commonplace in certain areas of the world, and it’s the foundation for the new film from Asghar Farhadi, A Hero. With that as the starting point, we twist and turn through the struggles of one man as he tries to gain his freedom in a system that’s got other plans in mind. Is he a good man? A con artist? Or something in between? The film raises some precarious questions and with Farhadi, the solution is never a simple one. It challenges the audience to weigh the evidence and decide for themselves, in a world where injustice is sometimes more prevalent than justice, we all need A Hero. But deciding who meets the criteria is all up to you.

SYNOPSIS - This Iranian language film (spoken Persian) begins with Rahim Soltani (Amir Jadidi) getting out of prison and making his way to see his brother-in-law at some kind of archeological restoration site. Rahim explains to him that he’s got almost half of the money he’s in debt, about 75 million toman. Rahim and his brother-in-law can make the arrangements to pay him back, but first Rahim goes to visit the woman he’s in love with and wants to marry, Farkhondeh (Sahar Goldust), but unfortunately he can’t do anything until his debts are cleared up. Rahim and Farkhondeh go to a gold dealer with a bag containing some coins and the dealer counts out seventeen gold pieces, then inspects the coins to give them a price on their value. But the real fun begins when Rahim puts up signs saying that a bag with gold was found, someone calls to claim the bag, he gets interviewed on TV as a hero, and then all hell breaks loose.

Once Rahim has gotten his life back on track, all his debts have been paid and he’s married the woman of his dreams, we’ve been taken on a wild and twisting ride through the realities of life. While the technical elements of the film are all solid, none of the sound design, cinematography or even acting performances are going to get much recognition. But with Farhadi, the craft of the story is what sells the film, the intricacies and layers he weaves into the screenplay make A Hero stand out from so many of the other international films. Like his previous A Separation, he’s able to hook us into the human drama, we feel terrible for our protagonist, but then he reveals a bit more to make us question ourselves on the conclusions we’ve drawn before doubling back and repeating the process. A Hero is not a feel good film that will leave you convinced that everything in the world is as it should be, but it will make you think, it will challenge you and probe your mind the way that only great pieces of cinema can do.

SUMMARY - Farhadi is an excellent writer/director and while this isn’t his best work, that can only be said because he’s produced a masterpiece of cinema, but this film still falls in the very good to great range. Even with it being in a foreign language, which critics and cinephiles will eat up, many general audiences will find the moral complexities and character dilemmas very engaging and entertaining. And the questions raised offer food for thought that one can ponder long after the credits roll, like who really is A Hero?