Rosewater
Open Road Films (II) | Release Date: November 14, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekNov 11, 2014
Rosewater is an earnest picture, but it's also got some juice — there's vitality and feeling in it, the secret ingredients so often missing from even the most well-intentioned first features. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyJoe McGovernNov 12, 2014
Rosewater, starring the geeky-charismatic Gael García Bernal as Bahari, is a gripping drama, smartly calibrated for Western audiences who still need an education in the bright, progressive, fight-back impulses in Iranian culture. Read full review
80
EmpireHelen O'HaraMay 5, 2015
Gripping, humane and lighter than it sounds, Stewart’s first foray into directing suggests that he was right to quit the day job. We can’t wait to see what he does next. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt GlasbyMay 5, 2015
A modest, moving film, Rosewater goes to show that quiet outrage can speak as loud as any atrocity. Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 13, 2014
Mr. Stewart’s interest in the material is obviously personal, but his movie transcends mere self-interest. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNov 13, 2014
Rosewater is not about what isolates us, and part of the film’s terrific achievement is its recognition that staying connected is a daily show of strength. Read full review
80
The DissolveTasha RobinsonNov 11, 2014
Like The Daily Show, Rosewater makes uncomfortable political realities into wry but uproarious jokes. Read full review
80
VarietyScott FoundasAug 28, 2014
Stewart’s confident, superbly acted debut feature works as both a stirring account of human endurance and a topical reminder of the risks faced by journalists in pursuit of the truth. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenNov 12, 2014
Rosewater, along with his nightly mockery of the news, shows that freedom of the press has no greater champion than Jon Stewart. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 17, 2014
Rosewater does not have blockbuster potential but it is more entertaining than one might expect from this material and it leaves an indelible impression about the Iranian justice system - something akin to the inmates running the asylum. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianJeff BakerNov 14, 2014
"Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove" is a line that could raise the spirit of any political prisoner, and Stewart's message -- that journalists risk their lives in pursuit of the truth every day around the world -- couldn't be timelier or more heartfelt. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireNov 14, 2014
My one real gripe with Stewart’s script is that it doesn’t make clear that Bahari (according to his own account), though admitting to “media espionage,” did not name names, i.e. implicate reformist leaders, fellow journalists or others, as his captors wanted him to. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 13, 2014
Kudos to Stewart for making Rosewater more than an earnest plea for journalistic freedom. He makes it personal. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesMary HoulihanNov 13, 2014
With Rosewater, Stewart proves he can pull back from the satirical comedy and become a thoughtful, incisive and questioning filmmaker. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 13, 2014
What you may not be prepared for is the way that humor does play a part in the story, in the sense that recognizing the total absurdity of a theocratic police state is one way to rise above fear and keep one’s mind free. In Rosewater, ridicule becomes a weapon of liberation. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonNov 13, 2014
Bernal (“Y Tu Mama Tambien”), an actor of Mexican heritage, brings to the role a charismatic resolve. It’s an impressive and impassioned performance. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 13, 2014
Stewart did direct Rosewater, and even with its limitations, the film works. Stewart has serious, dramatically astute talent behind the camera, as well as (big shock) a sense of humor. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanNov 13, 2014
Rosewater doesn’t hector, nor does it giggle about the issue of press freedom. It’s an impressive and important piece of storytelling. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreNov 11, 2014
Rosewater was the name Bahari gave his persecutor (Kim Bodnia), a cunning, perfumed older man charged with getting a confession from this Westernized Iranian, a confession that discredits his reporting and the bad light Iran is in since the election, with its ensuing violent government crackdown on protesters. Read full review
75
Film.comJames RocchiSep 14, 2014
The humor and drama don’t neutralize each other; in what’s perhaps Stewart’s most successful achievement as a director, the changes in tone work in a harmony, not at cross-purposes. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid DenbyNov 17, 2014
Stewart chose the great Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo to play Bahari’s mother, but, with her tragic face and her magnificent contralto voice, she plays a tiny role as if she were in an amphitheatre. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 13, 2014
Stewart proves to be an able filmmaker in Rosewater. But he also shows hints of being something more. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 14, 2014
I must say I felt relieved that the film wasn’t a masterpiece. If it was, we’d have more reason to fear Stewart will leave "The Daily Show.” Read full review
67
The PlaylistChris WillmanAug 31, 2014
For better or worse, torture-themed films don’t get too much easier to take than this one. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Geoff PevereNov 13, 2014
Rosewater is far too eager to please to play tough. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneNov 12, 2014
It shrugs off the bigger questions about Iranian politics its first half appears to raise, falling back instead on a gestalt of the eternal, Kafkaesque regime, wherever the viewer may find it. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranNov 13, 2014
Stewart acquits himself solidly, though not thrillingly, as a beginning director, doing especially well in the film's involving central section dealing with Bahari's time in prison, where the filmmaking is as compelling as the feature's intentions are admirable. Read full review
60
SlateDana StevensNov 13, 2014
Though at times Rosewater is clearly the work of a first-timer still finding his voice, Stewart is indisputably a real filmmaker. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyAug 28, 2014
The performances are all sincere and solid and the situation is easy to respond to emotionally. But as a case history in the annals of political repression, it feels like a bit of a side show. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnAug 28, 2014
Rosewater is lacking in sophistication, but its attitude is infectious. Read full review
58
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeAug 28, 2014
There is some humor to be found here, of course, and a bit of exploration of the sheer boredom of being trapped for days inside four white walls, and moments of real connection between Bahari and both his family and the political revolutionaries he gets to know on the street. But Stewart doesn't pursue any of these ideas enough to stick, resulting in a film that relates incidents without ever really telling much of a story. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 13, 2014
The movie has a couple of problems. The lesser one arises from its opaqueness about the involvement of Mr. Stewart and “The Daily Show” in these events. The larger one lies in its narrative — enlivened from time to time by instructive absurdity, yet awfully familiar, overall, and padded with a notably clumsy dramatic contrivance. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 13, 2014
The material is ripe for black comedy, but Stewart’s screenplay, staying true to Bahari’s real-life experience, steers a middle course. It’s sometimes scary, sometimes funny, and sometimes absurd, but never any of those things fully, or effectively. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyNov 12, 2014
All well and good — and, again, damn near unquestionably sincere — except that Rosewater isn’t much of a film. Read full review
38
New York PostKyle SmithNov 12, 2014
Jon Stewart’s filmmaking debut Rosewater has much in common with “The Daily Show” — it’s blaringly obvious, it’s naive, it plays to the cheap seats and it’s enamored with cheap jokes. Read full review
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