Recencies van critici

Even if, over the course of a globe-trotting decade, Changez has found a way through the contradictions in his identity, Nair carefully manipulates the viewers’ prejudices and forces us to take sides in a conflict more complicated than it first appears, all in the service of getting us ultimately to step back and look at the ‘whole story’ of East-West relations in their broader context.

The film holds one's attention through the seriousness of the debate it proposes. But one's interest is diminished as the dramatic focus becomes unclear, petering out in well-meaning rhetorical confusion.

For all these caveats, it’s hard to dismiss Ms Nair’s attempts to map out the anatomy of a potential terrorist. The actors, particularly Ahmed and Hudson, are excellent... And Nair’s attempts to distill global politics into neat drama is, for all the soap opera, never less than compelling.

[The film] draws a dubious equivalence between terrorism and the capitalist "fundamentals" of big business, while spinning Changez’s Lahore confession into the prelude to a dumb thriller finale... You leave the cinema with your teeth clenched, muttering: “at least it meant well”.

There’s much to enjoy in ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’: fine photography, juicy supporting turns from Kiefer Sutherland and Om Puri, and a powerfully sustained sense of a man adrift in a world going mad. But Nair’s customary absence of subtlety does lead to the occasional howler... and the conclusions she draws are fuzzy at best.

An interesting companion piece to "Zero Dark Thirty," Mira Nair’s political but also very human drama uses the aftermath of 9/11 to explore Osama bin Laden’s legacy from a less populist angle... The story sags a little in the middle, but Ahmed is magnetic as the ambiguous lead.

This sure-handed adaptation of Mohsin Hamid’s international best seller shows Nair at her best... Kate Hudson is miscast as the hero’s anguished girlfriend, but Kiefer Sutherland is icily effective as his demanding corporate mentor.

For all the contemporary relevance of the issues it explores, there’s something morally and aesthetically muffled about "The Reluctant Fundamentalist:" Nair is so busy making sure we never lose sympathy for her handsome and charming protagonist that the film ultimately founders in a tangle of humanist platitudes.

A smart, provocative film... With a potent piece of fiction as its starting point and a splendid performance by Riz Ahmed as its centerpiece, “Reluctant Fundamentalist” is richer in complexities than the films we usually get. It’s able to deal with the geopolitical ramifications of the world we have made, unwittingly or not, a world where people who should be our friends may have unaccountably become our enemies.

At times it’s dense and sluggish, too much like a novel. But there is some exhilaration to be had from Nair’s sincere interest in Hudson’s character, who is appealing but hung up by grief over a previous relationship... The central arc is a function not just of sadly expected post-9/11 affronts... but of doomed romance, with a vision of America that’s all the more alluring for being so tragically stunted.

Too prescriptive and too novelistic to fully come to life, at least "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" doesn't demean its characters or its audience. It's a dogged, thoughtful and well-acted movie that might have been more effective if it kept a narrower focus.

[The film is] blunt where the novel is subtle... By literalizing the idea of American military aggression and all that it implies Ms. Nair doesn’t just invest Mr. Hamid’s story with Hollywood-style beats, she also completely drains it of ambiguity.