I have no doubt the guys who made this film had some semblance of creating a complex character study of the post 9/11 political world, but somebody prodded them that drug use by teen hotties and sado-masochistic sex thrown in for good measure might help things along. Everyone in this film is fairly loathsome, with the Muslim extremist possibly coming off as the most sympathetic of the ensemble until the end. There is nothing special about the performances, mostly by b-movie actors. Lauren Holly as a hard line Republican US Senator maybe the most ridiculous bit of casting since Denise Richards was made a nuclear scientist in "The World Is Not Enough".

There's an adage in the world of drama, which goes something like this -- "a pistol hung on the wall in Act One must be fired by Act Three". I think it was Chekov who said that but I could be wrong.There's almost nothing to like about this confused mess of a movie, except for the strong presence of Lauren Holly as the U.S. Senator and Angus MacFayden as her sinister brother. It seems to be totally unlikely that such a clever political operator as 'the Senator,' who is a controlling and driven person, would be unable to rein in her do-wrong brother. He's a bottom feeder, a leg-breaker for some loan shark who has absolutely no scruples.The goofy drug-addled daughter -- Cassie -- gets to make a very fine presentation of a Martin Luther King speech, but only after she's already dead in the plot.This movie is a mess, with conflicts presented that have no discernible origins and actions taken by the principal characters which have no discernible back-grounding. It reeks of spy movie clichés without giving the viewer any kind of orientation ....Yes, the actors do very well with a minimalist script and some nice photography, and the viewer wants to know more about them before the tragic ending turns into 'bathos,' i.e., imitation pathos.It cannot be recommended for any of those reasons. It is as if the producer/director lost some pages of a much bigger and better script and then ran out of film, money and maybe even time to finish the story. It's not a boring film, it's a confusing and unsettling and emotionally unavailable film, even though the entire presentation of the plot is based on the emotions of the leading characters.There's lust, there's love turned to hate, there's dissolute drug-induced behavior and two totally a-moral bad guys, one of whom is the brother character. What an absolute and total waste of a potentially great theme, great cinematography, and intensely personal acting.The DVD is well done. Too bad that the excellent transfer was used to put this absolutely worthless film on digital media. I cannot even recommend it for being so entirely bad, as it isn't, for the reasons I've noted. This film starts well and then descends into a swamp of nihilism and sour, unrepentant, dramatic manipulation.Too bad IMDb doesn't provide negative numbers for ratings, because this howling dog deserves a minus 10 .....

OK...I think I missed something here. Not to mention I did like the ending on this at all. I watched this a least three time already and is still lost. Was Roger supposed to be some kind of under cover terrorist driving around in that cab? OMG...did I misinterpret this film or what. I keep watching and watching and I'm still lost. The ending could have been better. I'm still looking for more. However i did read the synopsis on this and it was nothing like I thought it would be. Overall there may have been some good shots here but I was very disappointed. And if I had wasted my money to go see this in the movies, I'd asked for a refund...No,no,no better yet... I would've demanded a refund. You disappointed me in this one Guenveur.Grumble

In some aspects, this film resembles Crash (the 2006 Oscar winner, that is), both multi-threaded stories facilitating action and suspense to narrate the diversity and convergence of human nature. In other aspects however, Fatwa sets itself apart from the Paul Haggis masterpiece by deliberately keeping many ends loose and concentrate itself on the essentials only.This minimalistic approach regarding what to tell and what not produces a quite distinctive taste. If Crash were a giant puzzle whose numerous pieces are put together one after another, resulting in a picture which, although just a window to the whole landscape, is in itself round and complete. Fatwa on the other hand would be more of a medium sized puzzle whose pieces are incomplete to start with from the beginning, but nonetheless are being put together despite of the shortage. As the pieces fall into place, however, the ones that have been left out become more and more irrelevant. In the end, a fragmented picture is presented which manages to show an astonishing whole view of the subject it is set to depict.So, when you watch this film and get the feeling there are too many circumstances you don't understand, please relax and know it's the way it's supposed to be. Instead, pay more attention to what you do understand, and let not your deductions, but your emotional impressions lead you. In retrospect you may find out that the fuzziness of all those circumstances are not only intended, but actually symbolic and therefore essential to the statement of this film: Despiete the different circumstances surrounding us, we all still share the basic human nature. In fact, the complexity of the world is no more than the diverse and yet convergent manifestation of this shared human nature of ours.The acting of this film is quite impressive. Due to the minimalistic story telling which leaves all characters practically without a personal history or background, it's definitely very difficult for the actors to display the depth of those characters. Considering that, they have all managed to get the job done rather well. Especially Angus Macfadyen shows a supreme performance.Fatwa is most certainly a film worth watching. You may not get it at first, but eventually you will, I hope.