It Was Just an Accident Movie Review
I Actually Found This Movie by Accident
Yes, I know it sounds a bit meta, but I found the It Was
Just An Accident movie completely by accident last month when I hopped on a
flight with no plan of what movie to watch. The flight was only about ninety
minutes, so I filtered my movie search to movies under two hours in runtime,
and perused my options. I’m not sure why, but this movie just sprang out to me
more than the others, even though I’d never heard of it.
So just like that, I jumped right in, basically blind with
regards to what it would actually encompass. It had me engaged until the 1-hour,
44-minute runtime caused me to deboard the flight with still a few minutes left
to finish the movie (terrible planning on my part, I know), which I ended up
finishing up a few days later. And so my accidental stumbling on this film by
Jafar Panahi came to an end.
The Story Behind The Movie
Before watching this movie, I had no idea who Jafar Panahi
was. But now that I’ve read his story, and what went into creating this movie,
I’ll definitely never forget him.
Panahi is one of the top film directors out of Iran,
notorious for his outspoken criticism of the Iranian regime. Doing so has resulted
in his arrest and imprisonment in the past. Even after being banned from
continuing his work on film projects, he’s cleverly found ways to share his
creative works and have them released abroad. In fact, he completed the filming
of It Was Just An Accident discreetly, which led to him doing some of
the work illegally, and with a very small cast and crew.
I’d say Panahi’s work is inspiring, to say the least. And it
has paid off, leading to this film winning the Palme d’Or at the 78th
Cannes Film Festival.
The Premise
The story begins rather unassumingly, with a man (played by
Ebrahim Azizi) driving his pregnant wife and daughter on a countryside road
late in the evening. Their car runs over something and breaks down, so they
seek help from a mechanic named Vahid (played by Vahid Mobasseri). Vahid appears
to recognize Azizi’s character, and he kidnaps him, because he suspects the man
to be a sadistic prison warden that traumatized him many years ago. But because
Vahid was blindfolded during his prison stay, he isn’t completely sure if this
man truly is the one who tortured him, so he rounds up some of his fellow
ex-prisoners to help confirm the identity.
The Pacing
The story kicks off at a
breakneck pace, and within just a few minutes, we’re frantically following behind
Vahid as he knocks out Azizi’s character, stuffs him into a van, and prepares
to bury him. Then, when the man denies being the person Vahid has accused him
of being, Vahid begins his wild goose chase throughout the city.
And this is exactly where
things slow down, a bit too much for my liking. We watch Vahid go from one
person, to another, and another, as he desperately tries to figure out if the
man he captured is the right one. I won’t go into details to avoid spoiling
anything, but this process of him running around and grabbing people as he
decides what to do began to bore me. Sure, there are tidbits of information
that are dropped along the way about what these people went through in the
prison, and there are quite a few comedic moments stemming from the absurdity
of what they’re doing in broad daylight while they figure things out, but I
found the middle of the movie to be dragged out, and I would’ve preferred if
they tightened things up here—maybe cutting out about fifteen minutes from the
total runtime.
However, the final act of the
movie is excellent, and the last few scenes take quite the turn. Many viewers
have an especially deep fondness for the penultimate scene of the movie, both
for its cinematography and its emotional impact. I appreciated this, but
actually enjoyed the final scene even more. If you watch this movie yourself,
you’ll probably be able to guess why.
The Acting
Acting can easily make or break any film. And with this movie
only having a handful of actors, that makes the acting even more vital. That
said, the entire cast was fantastic. I especially enjoyed Mohamed Ali
Elyasmehr’s portrayal of his character, who is supposed to be disgruntled and unhinged,
and he certainly delivers with this role. Throughout the movie, as the small
cast grows, I was treated to several different personalities vying for control,
and it helped keep the journey at least somewhat entertaining, even during the
parts that slowed down considerably.
The Cinematography
The cinematography in It Was Just an Accident is
something many critics will focus on. Since Panahi had to be creative in his
execution of this film, many shots are noticeably unique. Long takes, busy
backgrounds, creative lighting—Panahi and cinematographer Amin Jafari pulled
out all the stops to piece together memorable scenes throughout. That
penultimate scene I mentioned earlier is a beautiful shot, done very well to
make the scene even more impactful.
The Verdict
It Was Just an Accident is a good movie. It has a
hooky premise, a strong cast, and interesting cinematography. Sure, the pacing
leaves something to be desired, but the story behind the movie is just as
interesting as the movie itself, and we should all support Panahi’s latest film
if for no other reason than to support the right of free speech in the creative
world.
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