Amira & Sam

There is a useful directness to Amira & Sam, a comedy shaped by Sean Mullin with a firm understanding of its audience. In Amira & Sam, Martin Starr provides the anchor while Dina Shihabi introduces a contrasting energy. Without revealing later complications, Amira & Sam opens from this situation: An army veteran's unlikely romance with an Iraqi immigrant is put to the test when she is faced with the prospect of deportation. The resulting its 1h 30m running time feels most convincing whenever Amira & Sam trusts behaviour more than explanation.

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The most useful technical choice in Amira & Sam is well judged reactions, because it helps the audience understand both space and mood. Five By Eight Productions frames Amira & Sam through well judged reactions without letting surface finish replace character. Drawing on its United States background, Amira & Sam uses performer rhythm to give familiar material a more specific texture. Cinematography, sound and editing meet effectively in Amira & Sam whenever a sequence must feel large without losing its human scale.

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What keeps Amira & Sam emotionally readable is Martin Starr, whose choices establish a consistent point of view. In scenes with Dina Shihabi, Amira & Sam gains tension from two performers refusing to produce the same kind of energy. Paul Wesley contributes a separate rhythm to Amira & Sam and helps the supporting material feel less purely functional. The direction by Sean Mullin gives the cast of Amira & Sam room to connect the quieter beats with the larger ones.

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Sean Mullin shapes Amira & Sam with an approach that feels engaging in bursts but unable to maintain the same control. The best directed passages in Amira & Sam establish an objective, let the characters respond and then allow the pressure to change naturally. Worthwhile ideas compete with an uneven structure in Amira & Sam, particularly when Sean Mullin resists the urge to underline an already clear emotion. My main reservation about Amira & Sam is that the pace alternates between hurry and drift, a limitation that interrupts rather than defines the experience.

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Amira & Sam finds additional purpose in its examination of embarrassment, status and the gap between confidence and reality. Through the performance of Martin Starr, Amira & Sam makes that examination feel personal before it becomes broadly symbolic. The idea of Iraqi repeatedly returns Amira & Sam to the cost behind its more visible developments. Sean Mullin is most persuasive when Amira & Sam allows the theme to emerge from an uncomfortable choice rather than polished dialogue.

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The plot of Amira & Sam is built around the uneasy relationship between Iraqi and the central character. For Martin Starr, that relationship gives Amira & Sam an emotional objective stronger than simple forward motion. The screenplay associated with Sean Mullin lets an important relationship reshape the direction of Amira & Sam in stages. Although the treatment of a difficult choice could be sharper, Amira & Sam never entirely loses the thread established at the beginning.

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Amira & Sam ends as a qualified recommendation, especially for comedy fans who respond to personality and timing. What remains from Amira & Sam is the relationship between Martin Starr, well judged reactions and Sean Mullin's control of mood. The weakness that the pace alternates between hurry and drift narrows the impact of Amira & Sam without cancelling its better work. On balance, Amira & Sam gives its intended viewers a distinctive experience rather than a completely anonymous piece of content.