Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, 2007)

Let's get it out of the way: Persepolis is overrated. I remember that upon its release, critics were falling all over themselves to praise the film. Now, it is by no means a bad movie. In fact, it's actually a pretty good one. But is it deserving of its near-universal praise, its Oscar nominations and prize at Cannes, its Top Ten status? Eh, not really.

Maybe this is a reaction to the praise heaped upon it than the film itself, but during and after my screening, I felt a little underwhelmed. Persepolis' story is certainly an interesting one: Marjane Satrapi, author of the graphic novel of the same name on which the film is based, comes of age in Iran during the revolution in the late '70's, then spends some time abroad, dealing with issues of class, race, identity - all that good stuff. But I feel like something may have gotten lost in translation, or rather, in adaptation.

For an autobiographical film, we don't get much time alone with Marjane, so some of her struggles, while seemingly universal, are a little distant and hard to relate to. The color sequences of her at the airport don't work at all as a good framing device. Furthermore, while the dramatic bits are all mostly well-deployed and functional, some of the comedic elements in the film fall flat (the "Eye of the Tiger" sequence doesn't work at all and totally took me out of the movie).

But there are things to be commended as well. First and foremost, its a story that not only should be told, but needs to be told. We've seen American coming-of-age stories a million times over, and for me, at least, a lot of them are starting to feel a little stale (I'm looking at you, Adventureland). Now, stories about girls becoming women in post-revolutionary Iran? Those are a little less common. And beautifully animated ones? Even less so. Yes, Persepolis is a nice little film with some big ideas, which are handled with various degrees of success. It wasn't all it's cracked up to be, but I'm glad I finally saw it. [B] 95min, DVD (projected onto big screen)