Review of The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013) by Amilcar A — 04 May 2013

Mira Nair has directed some great movies and although she likes to pound the subcontinent theme pretty hard, I'm OK as long as the films are good. The Reluctant Fundamentalist is not bad but it feels outdated and it's rather confusing. Maybe if the same movie had been made in 2004 it would have been more relevant and informative. For the most part, this seems like a seen and understood topic.

The film is interesting and well written, playing between the present and the past in intertwined sequences. The story is about a young Pakistani man from a formerly prominent family who has fallen on hard times. He manages to attend Princeton on financial aid and gets a lucrative job in Wall Street.

All of this happens in 2001 prior to 9/11. As we all know, the world changes dramatically and for a young muslim, middle eastern man even more so. While he is successful and has a girlfriend in New York he feels out of place and has an epiphany that makes him want to go back home and change his life.

All of this seems like material to make an interesting story but it's shallow and not impactful enough. There was so much more that could have been done with this. At the end the film is neither apologetic nor is it controversial. It mostly feels like something we've seen over and over in better - and worse - movies.

Ultimately, not a bad film but hardly a great one that will be mostly ignored or watched by a few people on Netflix in a few months.