Corrupted Hands

I remember watching this film at a fully packed movie theater some years ago. I instantly fell in love with it. I was amazed by its plot, camera movements, and music. "Corrupted Hands" is a well-made heist thriller with pitch-perfect performances from some of the finest movie stars in the Iranian cinema. Greatly recommendedPS: The DVD case for this film states, at the top of the front cover, that this is an Iranian comedy. IT IS NOT TRUE! Even though it has some funny moments, it is primarily a thriller.

The DVD case for this film says, at the top of the front cover, that this is an Iranian comedy in the tradition of "Take the Money and Run" and "Raising Arizona". Nothing could be further from the truth. It's tough to understand how a "comedy" could involve not just the death of one person (yes, black comedies, including American ones, do include deaths), but immense suffering created by that death. It's obvious that the blurb at the top of the front cover was thought up by some marketing "genius" in an attempt to sell this film.The acting is OK, but the plot is completely derivative of your standard, run-of-the-mill "good people in desperate straits need money so they pull off a heist" kinda thing. A whole lot of the dialogue is stilted and clunky, and the amazing coincidence of a car coming on the highway right up in front of a person reaching that same highway on foot through a totally different route is basically ridiculous.A photographer, his ex-wife, his friend, and the friend's wife all concoct a robbery at a very rich young guy's wedding of the chunks of jewelry given to the man and his new wife by their friends and relatives. At the same time, the photographer has plans to marry his fiancee, a woman clearly much younger than his ex-wife. But the fiancee lives with her father who does not trust the photographer...and, you know, "complications ensue".This is definitely not a comedy, and it's also not a good example of a thriller or any other kind of film. It's just a conventional mediocre movie with some melodrama thrown in for good measure that doesn't do much but tries to do a lot.Not recommended.

I'm not sure how one couldn't like this admittedly dark but obviously funny Iranian heist thriller. The various talented actors flesh out the intriguing nuances of each character that make this film a thoroughly entertaining winner. I've become fairly familiar with Iranian cinema over the last few years, and this is still bar-none the most enjoyable film I've seen out of the Iran.