'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' - Movie Review

"Looks can be deceiving."
 

These words, spoken by a supposed radical and militant Muslim academic, Changez Kahn (a perfectly cast Riz Ahmed), echo throughout The Reluctant Fundamentalist, an important film which superbly reflects on how a hopeful Muslim was ostracised after 9/11. 

What director Mira Nair has succeeded in doing in this adaption of Moshin Hamed's 2007 novel is no small feat. After following Changez's story - unreliable narrators are rarely as interesting as this - preconceived notions about religious fundamentalism, Islam and anti-American involvement in the Middle East are questioned. And instead of applying the cliche trick of pitting an angry and confused Muslim against the "good guys", the west, Nair challenges us to rethink things and seek after more than what we are told to believe. 

Blunt where the novel is subtle, this adaption of The Reluctant Fundamentalist has been aptly translated to Hollywood's liking by centreing on the kidnapping of an American academic in Lahore, Pakistan and a journalist-turn-spook-CIA-agent's subsequent interview with a "person of interest", Changez. 

Through Changez's telling of his life as a distinguished Princeton graduate and analyst at a leading consultancy firm in New York, we are taken on a rather detailed - and quite ambiguous at times - ride through the events in his life leading up to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre - a day he describes as being in "awe" of. Changez's worrying description of 9/11 signals the turning point in the film. At this point we no longer know what to think of Changez, who had earlier confessed to love America. 

Riz Ahmed is terrific as the charming, witty and mysterious reluctant fundamentalist. And in a time when it seems you either have to be on one side or the other, Nair and screenwriter William Wheeler show how an intelligent screenplay can superbly go against the grain. Ahmed's casting is brilliant and his insightful and challenging dialogues with the ever-capable Liev Schreiber only produces a greater aura around this interesting film. 

The twisting and turning between present time Lahore, Pakistan and Changez's flashbacks in New York, Manila, Lahore and Istanbul at times can muddle viewers, but it's Ahmed's standout performance which stops us from ever tapping out. 

The brutal side of business.

The supporting cast sports some big guns that come in the form of a cleaned up Kiefer Sutherland, a fresh Kate Hudson and some of the subcontinent's very best.

Too much of the stuff coming out of Hollywood these days is bland and safe. Studios appear to be more concerned with demolishing cities than delivering something that makes us think. And while The Reluctant Fundamentalist could've pushed the barrier more, I have to go back to movies like The Insider (1999) to find something as compelling and important as this.

8/10

P.S. Check out Empire Australia's November edition for my Reluctant Fundamentalist review.