Film draws a troubled picture

In spite of Marjane Satrapi's drawing style - light, airy and fun - "Persepolis" still manages to be a dramatic film.

The animation is based on Satrapi's graphic novel drawing style. It's largely line-based, and, as such, the amount of detail one can see in any given shot is impressive. While the bookend scenes are drawn in color, the rest of the film is in black and white. Overall, the animation style works. Though it does seem to pull some of the emotional punch at the beginning of the film, by the end, the viewer is only vaguely aware it is even animated.

The story behind "Persepolis" gives that emotional punch its follow-through. It's a coming-of-age story of a 6-year-old girl that starts just before the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and follows her life up until her mid-20s. The story is autobiographical, and the viewer can tell the story is very personal to Satrapi.

One of the key issues of the film is the conflict between Satrapi's liberal upbringing and the Ayatollahs' oppressive regime that followed. Satrapi is brought up in a liberal family. One of her uncles is a communist insurgent, and his execution in the first 20 minutes of the film has quite an effect on the rest of Satrapi's life. Those factors, when combined, set the stage for her parents to send her to Vienna for school. Satrapi has a tendency to say things that are politically unwise, and her parents fear for her safety. The rest of the story unfolds from there.

The voice work for this film is good. It never sounds like an animated film. Sometimes, especially with Disney's films, the viewer gets a sense that the voice actors don't particularly take animation seriously. There is no sense of that here; the voice acting is spot on. Not once did tone or inflection mismatch the action on the screen. Chiara Mastroianni, the voice of Satrapi, does a credible job of altering her voice as Satrapi's onscreen character ages from a teenager to an adult. Another notable performance is the voice of Satrapi's grandmother, played by Danielle Darrieux. The scenes in which her voice can be heard are some of the most poignant in the entire film, and she carries it off in style.

"Persepolis" was a delightful romp through a young woman's life and a striking lesson in the brutality of Iran's Islamic Republic. All of the bad things that happen to Satrapi and the people around her tend to happen because of the government. Satrapi makes that clear with her story.

As this film will only be around for a short time, anyone who has a desire to see it should drop everything and go now. It's worth seeing in a theater.