The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Release Date: 31st May 2013
Directed by: Mira Nair
Written by: William Wheeler, Mohsin Hamid (Novel)
Starring: Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Liev Shreider, Kiefer Sutherland
A few years
ago Indian director Mira Nair was recovering after the release of Amelia Earhart
biopic Amelia. With a renowned cast
of actors (such as Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, and Ewan McGregor) in the
leading roles, the film was poorly received, being generally regarded as ‘A
dud.’ by critics and public alike. Not long after, Riz Ahmed was revelling in
the masses of praise following his starring role in edgy Chris Morris terrorist
comedy Four Lions. In the UK
especially, everyone was laughing at the crazy capers of the wannabe suicide
bombers that are the four lions. Mira Nair has decided to recruit this young
talent to regain face with this issue heavy thriller.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist opens in typical thriller style,
engaging the audience with a panicked kidnapping acting as an immediate
catalyst for the rest of the film’s events. In comes undercover CIA agent Bobby
(Liev Schreiber) posing as a humble journalist looking to get Militant Islamist
Changez’s (Riz Ahmed) life story. This situation acts as a framing device for
the bulk of the film, which is about Changez’s quest for success in America, a
country which he claims from the very beginning he is a lover of. Coming out of
Princeton University, young Changez wows Wall Street finance developer Jim
Cross (Kiefer Sutherland) with his relentless gaze for future victory, telling
him bluntly “Whether or not you hire me Jim, I am going to win.” Changez ventures into
the financial world, impressing Jim more and more with his natural gift for
ruthless financial bastardry. He loves his life in America, he has wealth, a
great job, a beautiful girlfriend, and there is still promise of further success.
However something goes wrong.
9/11
happens.
After this
tragic event, the intolerance of America locks Changez in a struggle between
his business, his family, and his love life.
At the
centre of the film is the romance between Changez and his arty American
girlfriend Erica (Kate Hudson). For the most part this is a fairly regular component
of the film, with the only interesting thing being Erica’s continuous mourning
for her past boyfriend, but even with this it is overshadowed by the rest of
the film. The dialogue between the two is often irritating and unnatural when
it is trying to be cute, and slips into cliché more than once. However the
relationship does have an interesting boiling point at one stage, where Changez
ends up feeling used by Erica. Although this scene is key the to way in which
Changez is outcast by American society, it always feels like the romancing is rather
tedious, and could have done the same thing just as well with less screen t
Although the
dialogue does occasionally lack in vibrancy, Riz Ahmed gives a stellar
performance, displaying the conflicted feelings of Changez extremely well, and
reflecting the emotional state of a man in Changez’s situation in a believable
way. The struggling conflict is one of identity, particularly national identity.
He wants to be in touch with his roots, but his father doesn’t agree with the
work he’s doing in America, as he is a more spiritual man who is a famous poet
in the town of Lahore in Pakistan. The changing feelings of the character are
represented very well, particularly in the music choice. In America there is
mostly an upbeat electro soundtrack which reflects the fast pace of his new
life. This also occasionally slips into Hip Hop with swinging crane shots of
New York City, reflecting the vacuous nature of the business big leagues he is
competing in. However when he tries to get more in touch with his heritage the
music shifts to traditional Indian music, with in-your-face subtitled lyrics with
which Nair says “Look at me! I’m reflecting the events unfolding on screen with
this song!”
The changes
in music to Indian in the second half slow the pace of the film right down, as
does everything else. The film loses its desire to tell an interesting story
and focuses on pointing out issues and problems in an overly-obvious way. This
is accompanied by the uninteresting and lazy directing style Nair uses
throughout the entire feature, which is essentially a watered down version of
the Dogme handheld style, to attempt to give that gritty realism. However it
barely adds to the realism of the feature, it just creates a dull and visually
uninventive atmosphere.
This
directing style also reflects the fact that the film is supposed to be a
thriller, as is claimed on the poster. The handheld camera style only ever
works when the thriller elements kick in, however the film only really kicks
into thriller mode in the last ten minutes of the film, the rest of the film
being a regular issue based drama. The drama does hook you at first with it’s
interesting characters and subtlety towards addressing issues of identity and
the shallow nature of the character’s quest, however there is a halfway point
where the film begins to lack, and becomes tragically dull.
One thing
that could be said to the praise of this film is that perhaps it is the new age
American Dream feature. We’ve moved from farm hands and fancy houses to burkas
and big business. If this is true, then one can only hope that future films of
this type will achieve a higher level of interest than this one.
So, wrap it
the fuck up:
The film
addresses its issues cleverly at first, but then later strays into obviousness.
Ahmed gives a praise-worthy performance, however most everything else about the
film is vaguely stale and uninteresting.
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