The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Mira Nair's perceptive psychological thriller—a film rich in suspenseful, subversive complexities—examines the ripple effect that the tragic events of 9/11 had on Middle Eastern Muslims living in America. After graduating from Princeton, Changez Khan (Riz Ahmed)—a Pakistani man—was hired by his Wall Street mentor (Kiefer Sutherland) as a financial analyst with a bright corporate future. Khan became romantically involved with a recently bereaved photographer (a miscast Kate Hudson), his boss's niece. But Changez's dreams crumbled after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, which altered the way he was perceived, particularly in New York. Now working as a professor at the University of Lahore in Pakistan, disillusioned Khan eloquently explains his subsequent radicalization to an expat American journalist, Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber). “Looks can be deceiving,” Khan 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 Khan become a dangerous Muslim militant? Is gun-toting Lincoln really an undercover CIA operative? Based on Mohsin Hamid's 2007 novel, this is a thought-provoking film about minorities trying to assimilate in America that also examines the roots of extremism. Recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a “making-of” featurette (32 min.) and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a thought-provoking film.] (S. Granger)