Review - Fireworks Wednesday
In “Fireworks Wednesday” the latest of the evil empires to threaten the United States is revealed as a place filled with ordinary people experiencing the same ordinary problems as any characters in a latter-day Woody Allen film — just better than that. Much better.
In Tehran, on New Year’s Eve (March 21), bride-to-be Rouhi (Taraneh Alidousti) takes a temporary job as a cleaning lady for a rich couple, only to find herself sucked into their marital melodrama. The wife, Morteza (Hamid Farokh-Nejad), draws Rouhi into the web with cryptic questions and mysterious capers, while the husband, Mojdeh (Hedieh Tehrani), exhibits an exasperated confusion at the spectacle of his wife falling apart. Rouhi finds herself thrown to caring for their child, as well as rooting out information from their neighbor, the beautician (Pantea Bahram), whose kindness creates confusion in regard to her allegiences.
Director Asghar Farhadi lets the drama unfold through twists and turns that reveals simple truths with larger implications. The marital suspense that Rouhi encounters heralds her own oncoming nuptials and function as an awakening to the innocent love she feels for her cousin. The marriage of Moideh and Morteza functions as a road map for the wrong side of town, a chart of how not to conduct the future. At the same time, it serves as a warning beacon to a woman’s lot in fundamentalist Iran — the men call the shots and the passionate responses of the women might well function as the only rebellion they have in that playing field.
Farhadi works wonders with his actors, from Alidousti’s beautiful wide-eyed innocent blundering into an almost Hitchockian position to Tehrani’s sincere unraveling. All players are treated with sympathy and understanding and even those who might be called the villains of the piece are not left with only disdain as the parting shot of the audience.
This is an intelligent and compassionate film that takes us behind closed doors in a country that is closed to the understanding of many Americans. Its strength and beauty lie not only in the revelations of how alike we are we are as people, but also how alike our art and entertainment can be, as well.
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