MOVIE REVIEW
“Fireworks Wednesday”
Grade: B
Starring Hedye Tehrani, Taraneh Alidoosti and Hamid Farokhnezhad. Directed by Asghar Farhadi. In Persian with English subtitles.
Unrated but does have adult themes, profanity, smoking. Check listings for theaters. 1 hour, 42 minutes.
Bottom line: A comedy of bad manners with an absurdist tone
One of the most insightful, keen observers of romantic relationships in his native Iran, writer-director Asghar Farhadi has earned an international following with a pair of exquisite dramas about marriages gone wrong, “The Past” (2013) and “A Separation,” which won the 2012 Oscar for best foreign film.
Thanks to his Oscar, there’s a market for all things Farhadi in America, including his earlier work. That includes 2006’s “Fireworks Wednesday,” a loopy, off-the-wall tragicomedy that chronicles a particularly stressful day in the life of a miserably unhappy couple whose marriage is on its last legs.
It’s the eve of Iran’s biggest secular holiday, the Persian New Year, and as the city of Tehran buzzes with activity, the couple are at each other’s throats.
A comedy of bad manners that puts an Iranian spin on Pedro Almodovar’s “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” “Fireworks Wednesday” covers the same thematic terrain as the later films, without their polished perfection. Its absurdist comic tone, which we haven’t seen before from this director, is fascinating and immensely enjoyable.
Hedye Tehrani stars as Mozhde, an upper-middle-class woman in her 30s whose decade-long marriage to the abusive, selfish Morteza (Hamid Farokhnezhad) has reduced her to a quivering, paranoid mess. Convinced her husband is having an affair with one of their neighbors, she’s constantly spying at keyholes, pressing her ear to closed doors, and listening intently at ventilation shafts.
As her suspicions grow, so does her husband’s abuse; when he catches her spying on him outside his office building, he beats her in the middle of the street.
Farhadi has a talent for grounding his memorable characters in their cultural context. His films aren’t about the abstract idea of romance. They show how relationships are shaped — and twisted — in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a theocratic, paternalistic state.
“Fireworks Wednesday” tells this couple’s story from the point of view of their new cleaning lady, Roohi (Taraneh Alidoosti). A young, beautiful working-class woman who is days away from her own wedding, Roohi is a naive, innocent soul who’s fascinated and perplexed by the goings on around her.
We have to wonder where Roohi will be in 10 years. Will she still be joyous, fresh, and alive? Or will marriage Islamic Republic-style kill that spirit?
Can love ever truly thrive in this soil?
