The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013)

By Al Alexander
For the Patriot Ledger
Aside from the lead-pipe moralizing, Mara Nair's timely and important "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is an eye-opening parable about identity and how it relates to the War on Terror. The only question is: Are Americans ready to listen?
Given what transpired in Boston last month, and considering the perpetrators were Islamic, Nair's adaptation of Mohsin Hamid's acclaimed novel about a Pakistani émigré's American Dream gone bust is likely to receive a welcome colder than a New England winter. But ignoring it would efface Sun Tzu's sage advice to "keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." In other words, if we don't attempt to understand our enemies and their perceptions - right, wrong or indifferent -- what hope do we have of ever achieving peace?
That's the challenge boldly set forth by the movie that wants us to see America through the eyes of a foreign national named Changez (Pronounced Chan-gez, not Changes, as ignorant Americans call him.) Khan, a Princeton-bred corporate raider whose life of wealth and luxury tumbles down along with the World Trade Center towers. It's an act of war that results in his being forced to choose whether to side with his adopted country, which suddenly showers him with hatred and distrust, or his native one, which -- in the wake of the CIA's intrusive insurgence -- views him as a sellout and a trader.
It creates a minefield for both Changez and Nair, who must find a way to persuade us to empathize with a man from a country that aided - and possibly abetted -- Osama bin Laden for years. Amazingly, she pulls it off with no small help from an unknown Brit actor-rapper named Riz Ahmed, who instantly wins you over with a performance oozing power and charisma. Ahmed is that rare man who never need say a word to know exactly what his character is thinking. And Changez is doing a lot of it, not to mention a great deal of soul searching, as he fights against himself for control of his true identity. Once he finds it, it's both empowering and crushing, given how high the stakes become for both he and the people closest to him. And the fact that he ultimately places compassion and self-respect ahead of god and country is reminiscent of John Lennon's "Imagine."
But Nair keeps getting in the way, repeatedly forcing the story's moral to the fore instead of making the wiser choice of letting us decide for ourselves. Perhaps she was too close to her subject, having grown up in Delhi and raised with a love-hate relationship with Pakistan, the nation from which her farther fled when it seceded from India. No doubt her heart is in the right place, along with her intentions. But she and screenwriter William Wheeler ("The Hoax") spread everything on too thick, whether it is recurring scenes of Changez being targeted by bigots and zealots, or his overplayed romance with a rich American artist portrayed by a miscast Kate Hudson, hiding behind an ugly raven wig.
Yet, as much as they try to dilute the film's undeniable power, the film is saved by Ahmed and his two superb male costars, Liev Schreiber and a never-better Kiefer Sutherland as Changez's sleazier-than-he-looks boss/mentor at the Bain-like company where he arrogantly operates like a ruthless world leader, directly deciding fates of people and families he will never know or see. Sutherland is simply terrific, giving the most confident, mannerless performance of his career. Same goes for Schreiber, outstanding as Bobby, an American journalist in Lahore sent by the CIA to question Changez about his possible links to a terrorist group that has taken an American professor hostage. It's through Bobby that we learn what makes Changez tick, as he recounts to Bobby (through a series of flashbacks) how he came to love America and how he gradually became disillusioned by it.
It's a familiar, but riveting story with more than a few parallels with Nair's masterpiece, "The Namesake," in that we again follow a young man blinded by the neon lights of America before waking up guilt-ridden and feeling like he's betrayed his native culture. But if the overall impact isn't as strong this time, the message about judging people on their character and not their looks, religion or origins is deafening. And it's one we should all carefully heed if our planet has any hope of surviving.