Couch quandaries: Is ‘A Hero’ a comedy or a tragedy? Is ‘Station Eleven’ worth the trip?
Dostoyevsky divided by Kafka and COVID on steroids
HARK!
I hear…couch cushions unsettling…
You know you’re in a pandemic when: You’re in the next room, and you startle. What was that sharp sound? You hesitantly go back into the living room, look around and…discover it’s just the dent your butt made in the cushion popping back out.
No need to resuscitate Hitchcock, for this deflating (in more ways than one) scenario.
Speaking of Hitch, one wonders what the chubby suspense master would make of “Station Eleven,” with its attempted blend of terror and light-hearted comedy.
“Station Eleven," created by Patrick Somerville (“Maniac”) and based on a 2014 by Emily St. John Mandel, sprinted out of the terminal on HBO Max Dec. 16; the last of its 10 episodes was put out up on Jan. 13.
Is it worth the 10-hour trip?
I jumped off after two stops.
Like quite a few miniseries-formatted shows, these days, “Station Eleven” had a tough time sustaining the momentum of its first show.
CONTENT ALERT: If you’ve had enough of the real-world pandemic, you’ll want to let this one sail by….
The beginning of “Station Eleven” was, for me, riveting: Matilda Lawler is perfect as Kirsten, a child actress who quickly becomes a lost soul when a pandemic hits. Himesh Patel (also seen in the recent “Don’t Look Up”) is terrific as an audience member who, with great conflict, takes Kirsten under his wing.
In the second episode, a decade later, Kirsten is all grown up and played with savage charisma by Mackenzie Davis, who is now the star actress of something called the Traveling Symphony.
A virus that sounds like COVID-on-steroids has wiped out most of the population…but, other than the grim Kirsten, her performing pals seem light-hearted and silly.
With millions dead, maybe all the extra oxygen not being sucked up is going to the survivors’ heads?
Not sure, as after the forced second episode I started hunting for something better.
And found it: “A Hero.”
Thank you, Amazon Studios, for producing this complex gem from Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (“About Elly,” “A Separation,” “The Salesman”).
Amir Jadidi gives a painfully perfect performance as Rahim, an Everyman who goes to prison for an unpaid debt. During a two-day leave, it seems like Fate has dealt him a winning hand: His girlfriend recently found a purse filled with gold.
Rahim’s loving family, including a son with a speech impediment, rejoices when he tells them he has enough money to repay the debt…then are devastated when Rahim has a change of heart, tracking down the gold’s true owner (or is she?), who claims the treasure.
Rahim goes back to lock-up—but only briefly in this roller coaster movie, as prison officials learn (more or less) what he has done, and launch a publicity campaign. Eager newspapers and TV news reporters glorify Rahim’s "heroic" choice…
A fundraising campaign makes it likely Rahim will see freedom as the result of his doing-the-right-thing—until some crucial details are questioned, and Rahim’s story begins to unravel.
It’s a comedy, in a black, twisted way; and it’s a tragedy, showing the bleakness of Rahim’s life, where “winning” meant a spot sleeping on the floor of a crowded apartment.
But not even that humble prize is available to him, as Rahim is a loser. And that means his bungled, half-assed attempt at redemption is rejected, with a resounding thud of a prison door.
“A Hero” is Dostoyevsky divided by Kafka: “The Trial and Punishment.”