A pair of young men living in the 21st century relive the tales of one of their ancient forbearers in this historical drama. Kamran (Adam Echahly) is a 12-year-old boy of Iranian heritage whose older brother, Nader (Puya Behinaein), is slowly dying. Kamran and Nader's family puts a great value on preserving the oral history of their ancestors, and Nader is passing on this responsibility by telling his brother the story of their distant relative, the great scientist and poet Omar Khayyam (Bruno
Lastra). In the 11th century, Omar is close friends with Hassan Sabbeh (Christopher Simpson), a passionate Muslim warrior, and they are both infatuated with the lovely Darya (Marie Espinosa). However, in time Omar and Hassan's paths in life diverge; Omar joins the court of the Sultan Malikshah (Moritz Bleibtreu) and uses his considerable wisdom to study mathematics and the stars, while Hassan succumbs to his rage and forms a cult of killers known as the Assassins. The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam was the first feature film for Iranian-American director Kayvan Mashayekh. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
The director approaches the enormity of his task with an earnest enthusiasm, offering a likable alternative to the assembly-line banality of so many family films.
While sumptuously beautiful, the film is often stilted and undermined by some painfully amateurish performances that no good intentions can smooth over.
More education than entertainment, Mashayekh's first feature length film tells a valid story but fails to produce on the promise of court intrigues and swordplay.
The Keeper suffers from a surfeit of scattershot acting and clunky narrative devices that usher the viewer back and forth through time with all the subtlety of a culture clash.
The movie gets historical with the warring factions in Persia, Hassan's attempt to assassinate the Sultan, and other Lawrence of Arabia style stuff in the desert.
5.5/10. Not too bad, interesting for it's historical content. As a film, technically well done. I was not impressed with the acting, not that they are bad, but they should have been impressive. Also the jumping around back and forth in time gets irritating.
September 1, 2006
James Higgins
The Keeper: The Legend Of Omar Khayyam Directed by: Kayvan Mashayekh Sound: Dolby Digital Screened at: Landmark La Jolla Village As usual, many of you likely haven't heard of this, since it's a very small film. First, I'll start off with the positive's, The visual's are quite stunning, there is high production
value's, and a great cast. Now, the negative's, despite still being a very good film. It get's a bit hamfisted and manipulative in a couple scene's, and the narrative takes time to get used to. But it's still a very good film that I'd recommend. 8.5/10
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