The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013)

Propagandist garbage. What a colossal bore. By the way, who said that Wall Street is the American dream? Did this brainy immigrant ever visit Iowa and ask them what their American dream is? Perhaps owning a farm and loving Jesus is it.He already admitted that he understands what makes America great. He said it in his interview. I'll give credit to the writers or filmmakers for that. He explains that America will give a talented guy like him an equal opportunity to succeed. Which it did.But the rest of the film is about denigrating capitalism, and championing Third World pride. OK. Some Americans mistook him for a terrorist. That's unfortunate, but not worth giving up his American dream.The pacing was ridiculously slow. The manipulative sympathy-pandering was insulting. Who asked this guy to come to America, and who told his country to be a Third World embarrassment? It is what it is.I'm so sick of self-righteous movie propaganda. Talk about stacking the deck. Of all the American girlfriends to get, he finds one who bases an entire photography gallery exhibit on his ethnic identity, and treats it like a cartoon. What are the odd of that? But it certainly fits into the intention of demonizing Americans.The lead foreign guy was good. His demeanor and facial expressions seemed to convey true soul and feeling. You felt his pain and confusion. Why use Liev Schreiber? A Jewish guy in Pakistan? Of all the actors.The opening was good. I didn't know what exactly was going on, but the music was great. It shows a traditional Pakistani party setting, with emotional crooner music highlighted.You will appreciate Kate Hudson as a slightly beefy, serious underdog. I've never seen her in anything other than romantic comedies.The Kiefer Sutherland character is portrayed as some kind of capitalist demon. Some credit is due to the makers for having his character tell about his upbringing and longing for financial stability.The bottom line is that this film slams you over the head with a socio-cultural, political point of view. Americans are ignorant of the beautiful nuances of Third World culture. Brown skin and primitive beliefs are ultimately cooler than modern Western culture. Americans think everyone from a Muslim country takes his commands from the Koran.Avoid this pathetic snooze-fest, or steer your friends away.

This film has an alternative title which is written above. It is difficult to write about this film since my story is similar to the plot we watched in it. Hovewer, mine was different, but I still had to leave the USA, and I really never want to go back there. What remains for me is to talk to my children via skype and see my kids may be once in a year. Many parents are convicted to that destiny, USA is simply not very welcoming to many who wants to succeed in it. Many people went back from the USA to their home countries. And are separated from their loving parent.This is a perfect opportunity to say to all who wants to dream their American dream, to dream it with their families and not by themselves. If you want to emigrate, emigrate en mass with all of your family, not by yourself.This film was very good! It deals with post 9/11 USA. It is obvious that it will be a different country since then, and for ever it will be. I would not recommend to live in it unless you were born there. I am so glad we had a film which showed all that, and that is this film.

"The Reluctant Fundamentalist" is a monumentally brilliant film masterpiece, and I might add, urgently important - compassionate, intriguing, good in ALL CATEGORIES perhaps somewhat reminiscent of "Lawrence of Arabia" and the superb poetry of Omar Khayam. It speaks to SO many of life's themes, conditions and issues including those of "academic freedom" and "cross-cultural communications". - - It makes its compelling observations in ways I implore EVERYONE to share - and to make lasting note of. I kept the DVD's setting for English for the deaf subtitles on and it was really great because the Urdu was thereby mostly also translated to great good effect. From Mira Nair, and starring Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber Om Puri, and Kiefer Sutherland Highest recommendations!!!!!!!!

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday MorningA prominent American professor is kidnapped and held for ransom in Pakistan. With tensions on edge over this, journalist Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber) manages to gain an audience with suspected extremist preacher Changez (Riz Ahmed), who relays his story of how he left his family home in Lahore to travel to the States and use his skills as a financial analyst on Wall Street to great effect, until 9/11 struck and his appearance and background suddenly rendered him a terror suspect in everyone's eyes. Now, with time running out and violent clashes break out, Lincoln must get to the truth before time runs out.Controversial subjects are always a tough drug for those to swallow, especially it would seem, American audiences, which may be the reason TRF didn't get the exposure it could have got. Mira Nair has taken a sensitive topic and crafted a slow, lingering piece that takes it's time , even if at points it feels like it doesn't have something to say and the narrative flow gets lost in translation. It still offers an impressive character study and plenty of food for thought, with a credible, strong lead in Ahmed, as well as reliable support from the likes of Schreiber and Kiefer Sutherland.Nair's film never seems to carry any overt political leaning to it, or be attempting to shove any sort of ideology down our throats, even if it presents view points and concepts that might well put many viewers on edge. While displaying an admirable thoroughness, at times it feels as though Nair is trying to delve too deep, and show Changez's world crashing down in too hectic a fashion. While it's intended to feel every bit as uneasy as everything else he experiences, the scene where he finds his girlfriend Erica (Kate Hudson) has turned him in to an art exhibition has an unintentional hilarity to it, like he's just been on some prank TV show.A challenging, unnerving, mostly riveting experience, The Reluctant Fundamentalist accurately portrays it's lead character as true to the title, slightly messy, maybe a bit too ambitious, but still eye catching and absorbing experience. ***