‘Honeyjoon”s Comedy Hits Harder in the Shadow of the Iran Conflict

Lilian T. Mehrel’s “Honeyjoon” is a captivating and unprepossessing film, a bittersweet valentine to the possibilities of compromise. Clocking in at an hour-and-a-quarter, Ms. Mehrel’s debut feature encompasses more than its shortish running time would seem capable. The story she tells is intimate in its particulars, global in its sweep, and all too relevant in its timing.At the time of this writing a judgment from The Criminal Court of Qom Province at Iran has come to light: The singer Parastoo Ahmadi has been found guilty of “wounding public chastity” after having performed “lacking a Sharia-compliant hijab” in a widely-streamed 2024 concert. She and her crew have been forbidden both from leaving the country and pursuing creative works for two years. An Islamic legal code for offenses not explicitly stated in the Quran, the ta’zir, accords 74 lashes of the whip for each of the individuals involved.As the United States and the Islamic Republic sit down to negotiate terms of peace, we are reminded of the inequities visited by Iran on its own citizens. The fate of its women weighs heavily on the mind of Lela (Amira Casar), a middle-aged woman of Iranian descent who is a primary character in Ms. Mehrel’s three-hander. Lela can’t keep herself from doom-scrolling about the civil unrest in her native land and will inevitably turn the most innocuous of conversations into a fatalistic exegesis on culture, fate and femininity. She’s kind of a drag.Or, at least, that’s the opinion of her thirty-something daughter, June (Ayden Mayeri). The two have traveled to the Azores on a so-called grief anniversary: It’s been one year since the death of, respectively, Lela’s husband and June’s father. “Honeyjoon” is intermittently punctuated by grainy footage of the sparkling beaches of Portugal, presumably home-movies made by the then newlywed couple. Mother and daughter carry their grief in different manners; this trip is an attempt to achieve a sense of peace.All of which might not clue you in that Ms. Mehrel’s film, for which she also wrote the screenplay, is a very funny comedy. “Honeyjoon” is sitcom-like in its parameters, but the dynamic it sets out is surprisingly mordant, quietly outrageous, and tender in its longueurs. That, and it’s hot stuff. How sexy can a film be if it concerns itself with the difficulties of mourning, abiding familial tensions and theocratic oppression? With actresses as beautiful as Mses. Mayeri and Casar, plenty. An air of randiness suffuses the proceedings.Let’s not forget our additional co-star, José Condessa, who plays an island tourguide. Mr. Condessa is some kind of hunk, and his character, João, is soulful, generous and caring. We learn that he’s the primary caregiver of a grandmother suffering from dementia (Teresa Faria). Among the best scenes in “Honeyjoon” is when the ladies’ daytrip of the island is interrupted by an emergency visit to the rural house of a distraught avó. Lela and June end up helping out with the laundry as João tends to his aged relative. Grandmother is not so far gone that she doesn’t have a few choice words to say about June’s slinky outfit.Ms. Mayeri is a delight as an oversexed young woman eager for the company of a man just as Ms. Casar brings gravitas to the role of a woman who has been robbed of the love of her life. All the while Ms. Mehrel provides mother and daughter with sharp and snarky dialogue, and creates an abiding erotic tension that is no less convincing for being consistently irreverent, sometimes broad and often rude. There’s nothing particularly innovative about “Honeyjoon,” but, then, most human endeavors trade in shopworn devices. The magic lies in how a guiding hand brings magic to the truisms at their core. Ms. Mehrel has given us a gift.

‘Honeyjoon”s Comedy Hits Harder in the Shadow of the Iran Conflict

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