Saw this a couple of years ago and it has stuck with me. The pedigree of Kiriostami and Panahiri is excellent but Hossain Emadeddin as a non-actor in the primary role is what won me over.Starting with a brutal bad situation going worse, to me is there to underscore the sealed fate for a working class stiff in Tehran, and really many cities.His primary contrast is not so much the jeweler but the rich bachelor who invited Hussein into his wonderland world during a pizza delivery. And there is something about the pizza delivery job that allows Hussein, and us the viewers aspects of moving through cultures, class and checkpoints.Another powerful scene comes with Hussein trapped behind a police sting, and thus failing at his primary job...but out of good nature reaching out to the Comiteh. Very powerful in a subtle way...And again the non-actor Hossain, carrying the weight of the world possibly folded into his own girth, and perhaps a nod to Iran/Iraq war (his blinking awkward health might have been good casting, or just a tough life bleeding through on the film).It's not a happy film, or even a dynamic film in terms of a window on another culture, or a revolutionary change in an individual. But again the struggle for Hussein to find some small dignity, some small purpose and some love in a large crushing world had me rooting so strongly for him, despite the pre-ordained and projected fate.Again the fact that I feel compelled to review this after a couple of years to me is a hearty endorsement for this film, but I understand others here less thrilled with this film.

This was a very interesting and well done movie. I was impressed how the director was able to capture the class clash in the country and how he used Hossein to show the differences of people who live in the same geographical region. While Hossein is mostly used as the "camera" the director shows how the classes have distanced each other and how small a "midlle" class has become in Iran of post 1979. I was mostly impressed by the scene within the jewelry store how the store owner treats two couples completely different, without haven had a full 5 sentence conversation with any of them, but justifying his behavior and ' customer service' simply on the class of his customers.

According to the DVD booklet this movie can be compared to Taxi Driver. Well, the only thing I find similar is the pace of the camera-work and the speed in which the story unfolds. My god, what a very slow and boring movie! Normally, a slower pace can be an element of added value, or even a necessity. In this case, it's mainly annoying. It really doesn't add to the atmosphere of the story, its rather old-fashioned film-making. Maybe also because it doesn't lead anywhere. The storyline is thin, with a theme of wealth vs poor that I don't find very credible, mainly the ignorance of poor. The only positive point I can think of is that the movie gives some more insight in the environments of Teheran. Some newer good movies come from Iran, this just is not one of them. I watched the second part of the movie in fast-forward.

I will not lie, the beginning of the movie was very intriguing and it hooked me into watching the rest of it, but to be honest with you...I kind of regret it.The opening scene is very interesting and it's duration of about 5 minutes is the best part of the whole movie and the rest of the film badly fails to live up to its beginning.Maybe some North American viewers thought this was a great picture because they saw shocking things in Iran such as how a 15 year old boy is already in the army - well that's no news to me, I was born in a country where you get taken to the army at 18 for 2 years whether you want it or not. Another "shock", as I read in a previous comment to this movie, was how there are luxurious jewelry stores in Iran....umm yeah... There are always rich people in big cities such as Teheran and that's what they do - they buy jewelry.Most scenes in this movie were waaaay too long and some were completely useless and meaningless... What am I talking about? OK...how about when Hussein gives out pizza slices to the people he doesn't know (don't wanna give away too much) what was the point of that?...they spent like a minute of the movie on the main character walking from car to car giving people pizza slices. Or another scene I completely don't get is when Hussein sees that his co-worker suffered a bad crash on his bike while delivering pizza...A friend of mine tried to tell me that the point of this scene is for Hussein to realize how meaningless his life is and that being rich is better... How does it show that? If a rich guy crashed on a bike same thing would happen...he'd go to a hospital and the homeless guy would steal his helmet (you'll understand what I'm talking about if you watched the movie). The point is - that there is no point in that scene.Twice I looked at my watch during the movie, both times towards the end because I knew it was supposed to be ending soon and didn't understand where it was going.All in all, a disappointment. Great beginning, but everything else was bad. Too long, pointless. It would make a great short film though...shorten each scene by 10 minutes (yes they are very long) and you'll have the same movie without any loss in its message.