What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

This movie was made with a good script, remarkable actors and fine filming. However, all that talent was wasted on promoting false ideas. The hero of the film is Changez, a gifted young Pakistani who got upset with the treatment he received in America after 9/11. That was the main factor that pushed him back to Pakistan where he becomes a reluctant fundamentalist. The movie promotes the popular idea that Americans, by the way they treat Muslims, make them enemies of our state. There are many ethnic groups in America that at some time became very upset. During WWII thousands of American Japanese were rounded up and placed in internment camps. None of them became a terrorist. Chinese, Irish,Italian,Polish, Russian Jewish immigrants were very upset with the treatment they got during their first years in America. Indians and blacks were justifiably very upset. Did they become terrorists? The fact is that displeasure with the treatment Muslims get in America is not what drives some of them to fundamentalism. They become fundamentalists because of their religious beliefs. The other false idea promoted by that movie is anti-corporate resentment. The film shows corporate greed, heartlessness and indifference to human plight that Changez eventually rejects. At one point he has to lay off a third of the workforce in a Philippine factory. The creators of the movie apparently condemn that cruel corporative practice. However, they forget that the same corporation continues to employ the remaining 2/3 of the workers and allows them to feed their families. Changez's job was to improve the effectiveness of corporations his firm tested. During the movie he uses a cell phone, a device that was invented, developed and manufactured by a corporation. Without the effectiveness of that corporation, blamed in the movie for greed, Changez probably would've used a phone booth, and not 1/3 but the entire 100% of the phone manufacturing workers would not have a job. Probably that's the ideal world of creators of that movie: everybody is unemployed, poor and happy. Money is not all, they say!

I am not a regular reviewer so please excuse my English writing.Well, yes. A very good "fiction" story. Riz Ahmad did good job. Om Puri sir, excellent as always. The story is so powerful that it really dragged me to IMDb to appreciate it. I love the Qawwali from Coke Studio from the very famous group.Most of the "Pakistani" parts are filmed in India so there are flaws. Let's come to the poor location selection, bad choices of characters and worst dialogs as always in the Hollywood movies made for South Asia. Shabana Aazmi was a huge misfit because the family is a Lahori family but Shabana's Punjabi is not that up to the mark.Secondly, the universities in Pakistan (even the worst ones) don't look like the one shown in the movie. Even if I assume it's a fiction movie, there must me something close to reality. You can check google images of "Pakistani universities".Thirdly, why, when we show people from Pakistan, there are Muslim caps everywhere :). Guys, there are hardly few people in Lahore who wear Muslim caps but I know the director have tried to show the religious extremism but it's not the best way.And Shabana says to Riz on the phone, "Electricity is not available and Eid Mubarak". I can assure that the time shown in the movie, at that time there was hardly any loadshedding in Pakistan. In fact between 1998 - 2008, most of the people forgot about power cuts. Power cuts started from 2008. Even if there is a powercut, a Princeton graduate with a huge salary can't afford a power generator in his house in Lahore :)Riz Khan's acting is good but he recited a very common verse of Iqbal that was wrong. I am sure even a lot of Indians know the correct version.I would say very good writing but poor direction and bad location choices.

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. ***

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.