Shirin in Love

There is a useful directness to Shirin in Love, a comedy shaped by Ramin Niami with a firm understanding of its audience. In Shirin in Love, Nazanin Boniadi provides the anchor while Riley Smith introduces a contrasting energy. Without revealing later complications, Shirin in Love opens from this situation: Love has no borders and therein lies the premise of the charming, new Iranian American romantic comedy "Shirin in Love." Nazanin Boniadi plays Shirin, an absent minded, young Iranian American living in "Tehrangeles" (the large Iranian community in Los Angeles) with her overbearing mother and empathetic father. The resulting its 1h 44m running time feels most convincing whenever Shirin in Love trusts behaviour more than explanation.

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Shirin in Love relies heavily on Nazanin Boniadi, and the performance responds with enough specificity to carry changes in mood. The contribution of Riley Smith gives Shirin in Love a useful counterweight instead of merely echoing the lead. Amy Madigan makes the smaller exchanges in Shirin in Love count, often through timing rather than emphatic dialogue. Ramin Niami understands that Shirin in Love becomes more persuasive when the cast can imply feelings before the script names them.

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The central idea running through Shirin in Love concerns embarrassment, status and the gap between confidence and reality. Nazanin Boniadi gives that idea a human scale, allowing Shirin in Love to remain accessible even when its world becomes larger. By returning to Shirin, Shirin in Love turns theme into a source of pressure rather than a message waiting to be delivered. The handling by Ramin Niami lets Shirin in Love leave a little interpretive room, which gives its better scenes an afterlife.

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The most useful technical choice in Shirin in Love is comic timing built around character, because it helps the audience understand both space and mood. Sideshow frames Shirin in Love through comic timing built around character without letting surface finish replace character. Drawing on its United States background, Shirin in Love uses well judged reactions to give familiar material a more specific texture. Cinematography, sound and editing meet effectively in Shirin in Love whenever a sequence must feel large without losing its human scale.

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Shirin in Love is most involving when the screenplay allows Love to complicate what initially appears to be a story about Iranian American. That shift gives Nazanin Boniadi a more specific problem to carry through Shirin in Love. Working from material credited to Ramin Niami, Shirin in Love reveals Shirin at a measured pace instead of rushing toward its largest turn. The later pressure around Nazanin Boniadi shows why Shirin in Love benefits whenever cause and consequence remain visibly connected.

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Shirin in Love benefits from Ramin Niami being unable to turn workable ingredients into a stable rhythm about what each sequence needs to accomplish. Instead of making every beat equally loud, Ramin Niami lets Shirin in Love create contrast between pressure and release. The premise retains appeal even when the finished film struggles throughout Shirin in Love, with the strongest decisions feeling connected to character rather than display. It is still fair to say that Shirin in Love suffers because explanation repeatedly takes the place of discovery, but the problem remains contained.

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Shirin in Love ends as a missed opportunity rather than a complete failure, especially for comedy fans who respond to personality and timing. What remains from Shirin in Love is the relationship between Nazanin Boniadi, comic timing built around character and Ramin Niami's control of mood. The weakness that explanation repeatedly takes the place of discovery narrows the impact of Shirin in Love without cancelling its better work. On balance, Shirin in Love gives its intended viewers a distinctive experience rather than a completely anonymous piece of content.