The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012)
Director: Mira Nair Stars: Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland
The Reluctant Fundamentalist tells the story of a young and ambitious Pakistani man whose one time love for the American dream serves only to betray him and fuels his subsequent quest to destroy it.
Played with consummate ease by the immensely talented and
underrated Riz Ahmed, we follow his
portrayal of Changez born of an understated fire and calculating passion. Climbing
the lofty heights of the New York City Skylines utilising his Princeton
Education in order to enter money spinning sphere of Wall Street, where Changez
finds love (Kate Hudson) and success (Through boss Sutherland) in equal
measure.
Director Mira Nair’s tri-linear restructures layer the
joyous rise, the crushing fall and the ambivalent levelling out of Changez’s
puzzled journey which is reassembled into a narrative similar to that of American
History X (1998), with poisoned minds, reflecting the eternal battle of bigotry,
racial tension and hatred.
If there is any criticism it is that Nair perhaps crams in
too much, case in point is a rather superfluous hostage storyline which opens
proceedings but adds little to the more fascinating character study and social
commentary.
8/10
