The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013)
Average Rating: 6/10
Reviews Counted: 78
Fresh: 43 | Rotten: 35
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is technically proficient, with solid acting and cinematography, but its message is so ambitious and heavy-handed that some of its power is robbed.
Average Rating: 6.3/10
Critic Reviews: 29
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 15
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is technically proficient, with solid acting and cinematography, but its message is so ambitious and heavy-handed that some of its power is robbed.
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Movie Info
We begin in 2011 in Lahore. At an outdoor café a Pakistani man named Changez (Riz Ahmed) tells Bobby (Liev Schreiber), an American journalist, about his experiences in the United States. Roll back ten years, and we find a younger Changez fresh from Princeton, seeking fortune and glory on Wall Street. The American Dream seems well within his grasp, complete with a smart and gorgeous artist girlfriend, Erica (Kate Hudson). But when the Twin Towers are attacked, a cultural divide slowly begins to
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All Critics (78) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (43) | Rotten (35)
It's a timely narrative subject, but its treatment in The Reluctant Fundamentalist is fundamentally flawed.
Top CriticNair has found a real gem in Riz Ahmed, who anchors the film with a charismatically watchable performance. He's in virtually every frame and you hang on his every word.
Ambiguity is at the heart of the novel, but Nair is never quite sure what to do with it.
As a culture-clash story the film works well enough, but as a character study it's a bit of a scramble.
It most disappoints as a thriller, the flashbacks and voiceovers and romantic entanglements so dominating the proceedings you forget that someone is bound and gagged in real time.
There's much to enjoy in 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist': fine photography, juicy supporting turns from Kiefer Sutherland and Om Puri, and a powerfully sustained sense of a man adrift in a world going mad.
William Wheeler has forged a richly complex, achingly satisfying screenplay from Mohsin Hamid's hugely popular, Booker Prize shortlisted novel and Mira Nair has turned it into a significant and powerful film with something to say
Riz Ahmed delivers a towering performance as Changez, the son of a Pakistani poet who achieves the American Dream before finding his own truth
One's interest is diminished as the dramatic focus becomes unclear, petering out in well-meaning rhetorical confusion.
Ambitious and thought-provoking yet ultimately uneven, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is elevated - and saved - by a stunning central performance from Riz Ahmed.
A lurching, stuttering drama, one whose intentions are far better than its sense of storytelling rhythm.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a small personal story, based on a novel by Mohsin Hamid, that has been inflated into an unwieldy epic. It's a brave one, though.
[An] assured adaptation of Mohsin Hamid's novel.
This is a film that makes some very interesting points about how society and the media can combine to create history's monsters.
among the most provocative releases of the year
Aside from the lead-pipe moralizing, Mira Nair's timely and important film is an eye-opening parable about identity and how it relates to the War on Terror.
[Mira] Nair's 'home is where the heart is' theme means she is never too distracted from reminding us that every human being deserves a point of view.
In her process of cinematic adaptation, Nair has removed much of the source novel's ambiguity.
Something is lost in translation, perhaps because Nair is at her best with more personal, less expansive epics such as Salaam Bombay and Monsoon Wedding.
It's hard to dismiss Ms Nair's attempts to map out the anatomy of a potential terrorist. The actors, particularly Ahmed and Hudson, are excellent.
The picture is long-winded and rather predictable but Ahmed is terrific and it's beautifully made by director Mira Nair.
At any rate "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is an interesting movie with some interesting performances, it's just too unwieldy for its own good.
You leave the cinema with your teeth clenched, muttering: "at least it meant well".
Audience Reviews for The Reluctant Fundamentalist
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| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
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April 24, 2013:
Kiefer Sutherland Reluctant Fundamentalist Interview"I found the script unbelievably enlightening."
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Foreign Titles
- The Reluctant Fundementalist (UK)
Mira Nair has yet again shed light on a very complex subject while keeping it real. Except for the editing part, as they could have easily gotten away with 10-15 mins of reel, the film does a brilliant job of keeping you glued to your seats with anticipation of what's next to comes.
Cinematography and choice of background music was just flawless.