Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Alex Deleon Mira Nair (age 55) is almost more of an international than an Indian film director per se with such co-production's as Mississippi Masala (1991, Denzel Washington) and "Vanity Fair" (2004, starring Reese Witherspoon) in her kitty, but she is better known for such films as Salaam Bombay (1988) and "Kama Sutra, a Tale of Love" (1998), and "Monsoon Wedding" (2001) which remains, till date, the most successful Indian film internationally outside of the NRI market. Wedding won the Golden Lion (Best Film prize) at the Venice Film Festival making her the first female recipient ever of this award. Her film "The Namesake" premièred at Rome in 2006 and was an international critical success. "Amelia" the story of American aviatrix Amelia Earhart portrayed by Hilary Swank, came out in 2009 and was met with mixed reviews but demonstrated the director's versatility and ability to handle all-American as well as Indian subject matter. Among those who praised Earhart was noted American critic Roger Ebert (recently deceased) who described it as "a perfectly sound biopic, well directed and acted", an opinion with which this writer completely concurs. "Nair's "Reluctant Fundamentalist" opens in Lahore, Pakistan (actual location) with the kidnapping of an American diplomat and an interview by an American journalist with a young American-Pakistani college professor, Changez, suspected of inciting anti-American terrorism. The scruffy looking journalist, actually an undercover CIA agent who is fluent in Urdu, is a close friend of the kidnapped American and is hoping to get information that will secure his release. Changez agrees to be interviewed under condition that the journalist listen to his entire story through to the end. Agreed. We now learn in flashback that Changez (Genghis?) was an outstanding student at Princeton and then held down a top job in a leading New York financial firm. Not only that, his adviser there was an iconic second generation Hollywood character actor. He had everything going for him except for his name and swarthy looks when 9/11 hit. Forced to undergo humiliating racial profiling at airports and slurs from former colleagues he gradually transforms from a staunch believer in the American dream to a die hard opponent of the system that is degrading him. He returns to Pakistan as a university professor in Lahore where he incites his students to anti-American activities.Through this dialogue in the threatening atmosphere of a crowded Pakistani café we begin to see the other side of terrorism -- how our own prejudices can turn a faithful American citizen into a disillusioned "reluctant" terrorist. There is consistent tension in the film and it ends with a rousing shootout, but it leaves you asking lots of questions. Nair herself says that her purpose was to do just that --create a dialogue on a subject nobody has the answers to but everybody has an opinion on. The main question on my mind after the screening was "why did I sit all the way through this and not take an early walk?" In a lengthy lecture after the screening Nair revealed that her father was actually a Punjabi from Lahore who had to move to India after partition, which makes her feel especially close to this story and enabled her to get permission to shoot on real locations in Pakistan --most unusual for an Indian filmmaker. The central role of Changez, on the cusp of two conflicting cultures, is played convincingly by British Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed, the American journalist less convincingly -- far less convincingly -- by Liev Scheiber, Kiefer Sutherland is Changez's breezy corporate mentor in New York, and Changez's wishy-washy American love interest was Kate Hudson. Based on a scenario with too much stretch and strain and undermined by too many leaky supporting roles the entire film was pretty flounder-aroundery and failed to measure up to the promise of the title.

dvfortune_007 'I need you to listen to the whole story. Do i have your words?...... Yes, you do.' A simple question, however most people never meant it whole-heartedly when they reply with yes, you do. This movie has lots of values highlighted throughout the whole story.A story about a Pakistani young man that growing up from a regular Muslim Pakistan family. As growing up, he has a different view of life than others as he saw the world as what has appointed to him by his family and everything he has seen. He believes he's special to himself and his family and at least he knew he could always be someone bigger he wanted to be. Born in Muslim family, he had experienced the culture of being a Muslim right after he could talk. That culture had become part of himself that he will always venture. letting himself to step little higher than anybody else from his family to chase his dream to be part of something bigger out there was never an easy decision for himself. it's like giving away your pillow away and start to sleep without it for the rest of your life. He believes by chasing his American dream will cost him more than what he can gain but he knew he can do it. He started working for huge consultant company and his hard-work paid off as he gets promoted to be an important decision maker for the company. Then the Sept11 tragedy happened where directly everything changed like a blink of and eye. He felt everyone see him as one of the terrorist. Misunderstanding of people towards his belief planting a anger inside him and until one point, standing up for something he knew he belong to make him quit his job and leave America. Going back to his country and start pouring all his ideas to his people making him felt lived and for some point, felt owned by his people. Living with the driven excitement, suddenly he's approached by a group of people that wanting him to join them in fighting against military by using his power to convince his people which is making him figured that everything applied to single fundamental. A fundamental that driven man to choose a step to change what your belief. A step that follow through with the changes that will change everything forever.This movie has quality that making me look into myself and think for a while over everything that i have experienced in life and how life has changed me. Salute to the creative 'fundamental' person that created this story. You don't know how much you've influence me...

RealDuality The Reluctant Fundamentalist is one of those films everyone should see. The main character is a Pakistani who goes to an Ivy League University in the United States and then moves on to a corporate life in New York City prior to 9/11. He grew-up wanting to be an American, but he suddenly finds himself being viewed as an enemy after the Twin Towers are struck.The struggle that he undergoes is an analogy for Pakistan. He wants the American dream; however, it won't have him as he is, represented through a seemingly doomed relationship and the alienation he undergoes at work. He is young, and hasn't yet found his truth. His journey to finding it is the underlying drive of the film.The Reluctant Fundamentalist captures the modern world, but there is a couple drawbacks. Kate Hudson is miscast. She is too old for the role, and isn't quite capable of handling the character's strong emotions. Though, it doesn't help that her romance doesn't take the full course that it does in the book. The rest of the cast is outstanding. Riz Ahmed handles the protagonist with dignity and grace, Kiefer Sutherland portrays an Executive roughly without overdoing it, and Liev Schreiber represents the audience's gaze with the proper dichotomy. In Liev's final scene, he expresses the exact same feelings I had when finishing the novel.

guyau-399-68372 Mira Nair is a fine film-maker, with a lavish eye for detail, so evident in the opening scenes of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, but what was she thinking in butchering an intriguing, thought-provoking book by adding a sexed-up terrorist sub-plot that undermines the power and themes of the story.This action movie subplot – about a kidnapped American professor and attempts by the CIA to find him – is Katherine Bigelow at her worst, and Hollywood at its most mediocre. Completely non-existent in the novel, it takes up half the movie, and ends with an implausible shoot-out, and some tedious speechifying beloved of bad American movies.Nair should have stuck to the main story of how the war on terror soured the Pakistani middle class's love affair with America, as seen through the eyes of one man. Critical of America's response to 9/11, which alienated moderate Muslims, the movie is at its best when it explores the protagonist's struggle to succeed at Princeton and on Wall Street, and his subsequent disillusionment in the face of post-9/11 hostility. Riz Ahmed puts in a fine performance, as do most of the actors, with the exception of a miscast Kate Hudson as the somewhat-too-old girlfriend struggling to commit after the death of her high-school sweetheart.The Pakistan scenes (shot in India) are wonderfully evocative, as is the use of Qawwali music on the stunning soundtrack, but a silly action story detracts from the main plot and characterizations, which required much more exploration and depth for this movie to really succeed.