Susan Granger’s review of “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” (IFC Films)
Mira Nair’s perceptive psychological thriller is perhaps the first film to examine the ripple effect that the tragic events of 9/11 had on Middle Eastern people of the Muslim faith who are living in America. It’s a concept that’s particularly timely in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings.
Changez Khan (Riz Ahmed) is Pakistani. After graduating from Princeton, he was hired by his Wall Street mentor, Jim Cross (Kiefer Sutherland), and became a financial analyst with a bright corporate future. He also became romantically involved with a recently bereaved photographer, Erica (miscast Kate Hudson), who happened to be his boss’s niece. But Changez’s dreams began to crumble after the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001, which altered the way he was perceived, particularly in New York.
Now a professor at Lahore University, disillusioned Khan is eloquently explaining his radicalization to an expat American journalist, Bobby Lincoln (Live Schreiber). “Looks can be deceiving,” Changez tells Bobby at their first meeting. “I am a lover of America, a soldier in your economic army.”
But suspicions about both men gradually arise. Has Changez become a dangerous Muslim militant? Is gun-toting Bobby really an undercover CIA operative?
Based on Mohsin Hamid’s intimate, introspective, inscrutable 2007 novel, it’s been somewhat clumsily adapted for the screen by William Wheeler and Ami Boghani, opening with the kidnapping of an American professor by an al-Qaeda-like political group. That slick framing device serves as a distraction from the essential, thought-provoking vision of Indian director Mira Nair (“Monsoon Wedding,” “Mississippi Masala,” “The Namesake”), who obviously feels an affinity for cultural diversity, focusing on minorities who are trying to assimilate in America, and examining the roots of extremism.
Charismatic Riz Ahmed delivers a totally convincing, nuanced performance, while Michael Andrews’ exotic score is notably effective. FYI: The name Changez Khan is an alternative to Genghis Khan.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” is a serious 7, rich in suspenseful, subversive complexities that should appeal to international audiences.
