The Reluctant Fundamentalist Reviews
Guardian [UK]
An intriguing film about the blowback involved when melting-pot America goes to war.
Full Review
![Source: Guardian [UK]](http://images.rottentomatoescdn.com/images/icons/offsite.gif "Source: Guardian [UK]"){kind=icon}
| Original Score: 3/5
Oregonian
"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" serves as a welcome rejoinder to some of the more jingoistic rhetoric of the last dozen years.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
Little White Lies
Boosted by a terrific lead turn from Riz Ahmed.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
ViewLondon
Engaging, beautifully shot drama with a commendably balanced script and a terrific central performance from Riz Ahmed ...
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Top CriticThere'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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
SSG Syndicate
Seriously rich in suspenseful, subversive complexities about the roots of extremism - that should appeal to international audiences.
Full Review
| Original Score: 7/10
TheMovieReport.com
The film not only functions well as a thriller and an exploration of post-9/11 paranoia and prejudice, but a thoughtful look at fickle, knee-jerk human psychology of judgment in the wake of tragedies.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Examiner.com
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a pretty ballsy political thriller that puts a much needed different spin on the war on terrorism in film and happily piggybacks on the shoulders of Riz Ahmed who carries the film with ease.
Full Review
| Original Score: 6/10
This sure-handed adaptation of Mohsin Hamid's international best seller shows Nair at her best.
East Bay Express
Nair and her writers are trying to tell an honest story about a thoughtful man being violently pulled in different directions.
Deliberately ambiguous, "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" provides just enough answers while leaving us with more than enough questions.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
Handsomely crafted and smartly performed, the film works on its own terms. But in expanding the story's canvas, it dilutes rather than translates the power of the book.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Reeling Reviews
Nair adds a thriller element by shifting back and forth between Changez's story and the escalating hysteria in the present time, all the while making us question Changez's part in it. The frustrating thing is, that ends up getting lost in the shuffle.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
RedEye
Flawed but more compelling than it sounds.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Common Sense Media
Powerful, edgy, but overlong film about search for identity.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Leonard Maltin's Picks
Riz Ahmed is perfectly cast as a young Pakistani man who, in the year 2000, emigrates to the U.S. to live the modern American dream.
It's a dogged, thoughtful and well-acted movie that might have been more effective if it kept a narrower focus.
Timeliness is certainly on the side of Mira Nair's uneven but fascinating The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
amNewYork
It's a middlebrow drama, but Changez's transition from elitist Princeton grad living the Wall Street dream to radical Lahore professor is depicted in convincing fashion.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
James on screenS
This beautifully textured drama about a man caught between two cultures reflects the distrust, misunderstanding and harsh political reality of Pakistan-American relations.
