I was surprised at the unexpected places “Amira & Sam” went. Stories about soldiers coming home from war, and movies about cross-cultural romances, tend to go in fairly predictable directions. But this smart and ambitious drama feels authentic and level-headed.
Martin Starr plays Sam, an Army sergeant recently honorably discharged after multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. A stubbornly independent guy, he refuses his counselor’s advice to file for PTSD disability pay, saying he doesn’t want a handout. He gets fired from his job as a night watchman at a skyscraper after some young masters of the universe disrespect him, but he’s utterly sanguine about his fate.
He got the job through a cousin, Charlie (Paul Wesley), a high-finance high-roller who earnestly wants to be seen as a good guy, even as he slithers and scrapes in pursuit of the holy dollar. He recruits Sam to help him land a huge client who’s a Vietnam vet (David Rasche), and soon it looks like he will be joining that world.
But his past catches up with him in the form of Bassam (Laith Nakli), an Iraqi translator who sacrificed much to work with the American troops, and eventually followed them home when life became too dangerous in his homeland. He brought with him his niece Amira (Dina Shihabi), a willful young woman who seems to flit from trouble to more trouble.
When that trouble becomes too great and the authorities are looking to deport Amira, Sam steps in to help out an old friend. He becomes Amira’s protector, roommate and friend. Though she resents him greatly at first, a certain tenderness eventually builds.
(A note on the title: The film is listed on its own website and IMDb.com as “Amira & Sam,” but the version I watched quite clearly bills itself as “Sam & Amira.”)
Starr has tremendous screen presence as Sam, a guy with a laconic sense of humor and deep-seated sense of self. He secretly dreams of becoming a stand-up comic, and constantly scribbles his observations into a notebook. But he’s terrible in his initial attempt on stage, and seems destined to just be the funny guy at parties.
Writer/director Sean Mullin knows these characters well and helps his actors illustrate them in tidy sketches. Some of the plotting gets a little loose late in the game; a squabble at a party seems cooked up to move the story from point A to B, not because the characters would actually behave that way.
But overall this is an assured feature film debut for Mullin, and a great vehicle for Starr. With his slouchy good looks and calm screen demeanor, he could go far.
4 Yaps