Such a frustrating disappointment

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

THE WAR WITHIN is a profoundly disturbing movie while at the same time a film that should be seen by as wide an audience as possible. Wearing blinders in an era when terrorism is such a threat does not make fear go away. Learning the mindset of those who perpetrate terrorist acts provides some invaluable insights that may, just may, reduce the schism between factions that in reality are simply separate groups with profound beliefs and fears.Hassan (Ayad Akhtar, who co-wrote the script) is a Pakistani, American-educated youth in Paris for graduate training when he is abducted in the streets of Paris as a suspect dissident. Transported to Pakistan and incarcerated in a small cell with another victim Khalid (Charles Daniel Sandoval) the two survive brutal interrogations and torture at the hands of Americans for information they do not have. The story then jumps three years forward, finding a radically different, bruised Hassan returning to America hidden in a ship's container. His experiences have changed him to a religious Islamic devotee and he joins a terrorist cell in New Jersey to take part in terrorist suicide bombings of New York City. Hassan visits his dear friend Sayeed (Firdous Bamji) and his family and sister with whom Hassan, though attracted, cannot pursue for religious reasons. The family notes Hassan's mental changes and grows concerned for him, eventually finding out about his terrorist intentions.The inner workings of the terrorist cell bring much light as to the religious drive toward martyrdom, and slowly we begin to understand Hassan's motivations and convictions - a fact that allows us to find compassion for a soul driven to acts of violence and extinction. It is terrifying but at the same time desperately moving.The film's script is multilingual with subtitles when English is not spoken, but there is a major problem with the soundtrack in that much of the dialogue is so soft or whispered that it simply cannot be heard - and the dialogue is important. Director Joseph Castelo paces this dark story well, allowing the inner thoughts of each of the varied characters to emerge gradually. The cinematography is appropriately toned and the acting is absolutely first rate. THE WAR WITHIN goes beyond the realm of a terrorist story and personalizes the individual wars within each of us in this time of global chaos. For one of the first times we are allowed to see how sensitive young people can metamorphose into suicide bombers, and observing that transformation is heartbreaking. A brilliant little film and one Highly Recommended. Grady Harp

Contrary to what some have written here, "The War Within" is not anti-American. The film, written by Ayad Akhtar, Joseph Castelo and Tom Glynn, raises some intriguing questions and questions some of our government's actions. Doing that isn't anti-American. Questioning what our leaders do, the orders they give, the policies they install is very American."The War Within" never portrays American people as evil or xenophobic. Quite the opposite. But Akhtar, Castelo and Glynn never dig beneath the surface of their story to probe characters' motivations or even some important issues, such as extraordinary renditions. Isn't that a wonderful euphemism for transporting terror suspects - emphasis on suspects - to countries of their origin so that they can be tortured and our leaders can absolve themselves by saying, "We do not torture?"The trouble with this film is that we never get to see Hassan's (Akhtar) inner turmoil, the war within himself. There's no internal conflict here - we don't see him grappling with moral issues. He has his mind set on his mission and nothing will make him change his mind, not even the love of a woman.For this film to work, the transformation of Hassan is absolutely crucial. Unfortunately, that is handled with a simple super-imposed title card: "Three Years Later." Huh? Those three years are imperative. We never find out what made him change. Why he did it, especially given his obviously western influences. Had the writers bothered to delve into the hows and whys, it would have made for a crackerjack movie.As much as our illustrious leader would like to simplify the enemy's reasoning with, "They hate our freedoms," the actual issue is far more complex than that. And this film avoids a terrific opportunity to tap into that complexity and show the western world what it is that makes a seemingly rational man to so drastically change his world view that he's willing to commit unimaginable horrors.Who has such power that they're able to convert people? How do they operate? What is their mode of operation? What do they teach? How do they manipulate seemingly well-educated adults? The writers and director, who also is Castelo, never bother to ask, let alone answer, these questions. Instead, much of the plotting seems rather superficial. Castelo wants us to understand Hassan, but never gives us any insight into his character. We never even find out whether Hassan really was innocent? Just addressing that simple issue would have added such depth to this film and to his character.The filmmakers raise the interesting point about whether we really know the people who are close to us. And there are brief glimpses of brilliance when we see how children can easily be manipulated by unethical adults. That still doesn't answer how an adult can be turned around."The War Within" is an admirable attempt to show us another, very important and oft-ignored, side of post-9/11 America. Castelo gets good performances from his actors. But he shortchanges them with a story that never taps its full potential. It's a good sign that there are intrepid filmmakers out there willing to make movies that dare to tackle such issues. In this case, Castelo could have been a bit more daring to really get into his lead character's skin to reveal a complex person. "The War Within" never is as provocative as it ought to be and that's a shame.

If, like me, you've been waiting for the first serious narrative film portrayal of contemporary Islamic terrorism, here it is. I had searched in vain for such a feature shortly before release of "War Within." The closest thing I found was "The Terrorist," a well crafted 1999 film set in Sri Lanka, about a young Tamil woman who is trained to become a suicide bomber.But the insurrection of the Tamil rebels against the government has always been about political control, not conflicting world views or religion as such. The terrorist is not motivated by the promise of reward in the afterlife for her deed, but by the vision of a better sociopolitical future for her people. There's nothing in that movie that bears on extremist Muslim jihad.Now we've got such a film, and it's pretty good. Co-written by three buddies, alums of the Columbia University Graduate Film Program, it is directed by one of them (Joseph Castelo) and stars another (Ayad Akhtar, born and raised in Milwaukee) as Hassan, a peaceable Pakistani engineer turned suicide bomber.The screenplay is vague on contextual details. Hassan has been living and studying in Paris for some time. As the film opens he's out strolling, gabbing on his cell phone about what film he wants to see that evening, when he is forcibly seized, thrust into a car and injected in the neck with a drug, an explosive sequence that definitely hooks you.Remanded to a prison in Pakistan, he is held there for more than two years and regularly tortured by authorities that assume he is mixed up with a domestic terrorist organization, a group Hassan's brother had apparently been affiliated with, a brother who, unbeknownst to Hassan, had been killed earlier because of this presumed connection. From here on the plot unfolds more clearly.Hassan, previously apolitical, is radicalized by this experience and, upon release from prison, he affiliates with an extremist group that eventually smuggles him into New York City, where he joins others who will use his engineering skills to make bombs for imminently planned suicide missions at major public sites like Grand Central Station.When the FBI busts up the cell, Hassan must find cover and moves into the home of an old school chum, Sayeed (Firdous Bamji), a physician who has immigrated with his family to New Jersey. Sayeed is comfortably settled, a middle-of-the-road Muslim, definitely pro-American. Hassan does not discuss his imprisonment or his mission with Sayeed, though wide differences in the two men's religio-political views gradually become clear.Hassan, his resolve fueled by horrid nocturnal flashbacks from his captivity, now secretly assembles bomb packs in Sayeed's basement for himself and another cell member who has stayed at large. Finally discovered, he bolts, bombs and all, heading for Grand Central Station. Sayeed calls the police, who of course take Sayeed himself into custody. Duri, Sayeed's sister, who has a major crush on Hassan, also tries to stop him, but to no avail. The fact that Hassan successfully detonates his payload in the middle of Manhattan is chilling, to say the least.The main characters (Hassan and Sayeed) are written thoughtfully and are well acted: they aren't just devices to expound differing perspectives. Hassan is reserved, self contained, understandably guarded. He is tender toward Sayeed's young son, Ali, but does not spare him lessons about the threats to Muslims throughout the world that Hassan perceives, lessons imparted in whispers at night in the bedroom they share. At times we see anger and tension burning in Hassan's eyes, but more often he appears to be serenely sure of himself, and this too is chilling.Sayeed, in contrast, has been thoroughly Westernized. He's warm, gregarious, trusting. And when, near the end, he picks up the phone to dial the police, to report Hassan's terrorist intentions, secure in the belief that here in the U.S. his trust will be requited, you want to shout out to him, No! Don't do it! They will take you! See you as complicit in the bombing plot! You and your family may be ruined! It is a deeply ironic moment, presented, as is everything in the film, without pompous sermonizing.This movie demonizes the Pakistanis who kidnap and torture Hassan. Perhaps this is justified, but it is regrettable that the film stoops to the same tactic of anonymous stereotyping that has characterized portrayals of terrorists themselves in nearly all the unsatisfactory Hollywood movies on this theme (mostly third rate action flicks in which a Bruce Willis, Sly Stallone or Ahnold the Governator kills off the faceless terrorist horde).The story in "War Within" hangs together plausibly until near the end, when events become kaleidoscopically frantic, too much so to be entirely believable. The other significant flaw in this film is that, apart from its two central characters, the other roles are merely one dimensional props.A major strength of "War Within" is its intelligently entwined story of conflict on three levels, sounded in the triple entendre of its title. Surely there is a war afoot within the world, between the jihadists and others, especially the U.S., Western Europe and Australia. And there is a struggle within the Islamist world itself, between religious moderates and militant fundamentalists, personified here by Sayeed and Hassan.There are also hints of a struggle going on within Hassan himself, a pull between his former comfortable, peaceful way of life, a life Sayeed and Duri would be only too glad to help him restart in America, and the terrorist cause to which he has more recently dedicated himself.This film no doubt foreshadows others on terrorism yet to come that may be better, but "War Within" is a noteworthy beginning. (In Urdu & English) My rating: 7.5/10 (low B+). (Seen on 10/23/05). If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.

I liked it so much because it is complex and doesn't give easy answers. The War Within starts out with an innocent man walking down the streets of Paris and talking on his cell phone. Out of nowhere, a group of men jump out of a black SUV, grab the man on his cell, throw him into the SUV, and ship him to a prison camp in Pakistan where he is then tortured for the next three years. And all this happens even before the opening credits.The man on his cell phone is named Hassan, and the men in the black SUV are American CIA agents who kidnap and torture Hassan because (we later learn) his brother lead a peaceful anti-war protest in Afghanistan. Three years later, after enough torture and abuse to drive any man crazy, Hassan is released from prison and travels to America to get his revenge. So clearly he's a bad guy, right? But then again, he was no threat to anyone before he was kidnapped, beaten, and tortured for three years. So then is America the bad guy? What makes The War Within so intelligent and so superb is that isn't a story about good guys and bad guys. It's a story about the mammoth "War on Terror" and how it affects a single group of Pakistani immigrants in New York. The only bad guys are the acts of violence themselves, and all sides of guilty of that. You absolutely have to see this exquisite character study and you have to tell everyone you know to see it, too.