Propagandist garbage. What a colossal bore. By the way, who said that Wall Street is the American dream? Did this brainy immigrant ever visit Iowa and ask them what their American dream is? Perhaps owning a farm and loving Jesus is it.He already admitted that he understands what makes America great. He said it in his interview. I'll give credit to the writers or filmmakers for that. He explains that America will give a talented guy like him an equal opportunity to succeed. Which it did.But the rest of the film is about denigrating capitalism, and championing Third World pride. OK. Some Americans mistook him for a terrorist. That's unfortunate, but not worth giving up his American dream.The pacing was ridiculously slow. The manipulative sympathy-pandering was insulting. Who asked this guy to come to America, and who told his country to be a Third World embarrassment? It is what it is.I'm so sick of self-righteous movie propaganda. Talk about stacking the deck. Of all the American girlfriends to get, he finds one who bases an entire photography gallery exhibit on his ethnic identity, and treats it like a cartoon. What are the odd of that? But it certainly fits into the intention of demonizing Americans.The lead foreign guy was good. His demeanor and facial expressions seemed to convey true soul and feeling. You felt his pain and confusion. Why use Liev Schreiber? A Jewish guy in Pakistan? Of all the actors.The opening was good. I didn't know what exactly was going on, but the music was great. It shows a traditional Pakistani party setting, with emotional crooner music highlighted.You will appreciate Kate Hudson as a slightly beefy, serious underdog. I've never seen her in anything other than romantic comedies.The Kiefer Sutherland character is portrayed as some kind of capitalist demon. Some credit is due to the makers for having his character tell about his upbringing and longing for financial stability.The bottom line is that this film slams you over the head with a socio-cultural, political point of view. Americans are ignorant of the beautiful nuances of Third World culture. Brown skin and primitive beliefs are ultimately cooler than modern Western culture. Americans think everyone from a Muslim country takes his commands from the Koran.Avoid this pathetic snooze-fest, or steer your friends away.

Just finished watching this film on Netflix and found it to be one of the best and most concise examinations of world conflict and the contributions made by misguided American foreign policy in concert with transnational corporations. Highly recommended. Whatever ones belief may be about 9/11 and who was ultimately responsible, after my initial shock and horror of that day's events I remember that my first concern was the potential knee-jerk reaction of our own citizens that would morph into a backlash against all foreigners who might appear to be ethnically related to the alleged hijackers. My concerns proved to be well founded, and the profiling attitude prevails to this day.It has been my privilege and pleasure to travel the world extensively, where I have met and worked with some of the nicest people and brightest minds in their respective nations, as well as working with a diversity of such individuals during a ten year professional career in Silicon Valley. Those travels have taken me throughout Asia, Europe, South Asia and the Middle East, including time in Iran, India, Egypt, and China. This film provides the sort of global perspective one must have to fully appreciate the huge misconceptions both here and abroad, and how these misconceptions can rapidly deteriorate into conflicts that become global in nature. And it is always the innocents who are caught in the middle of these conflicts who pay the dearest price.During military service that took me to Vietnam as a U.S. Navy photographer in 1967, '68 and '69 I remember a popular poster of that era that stated, "What if they gave a war and nobody came."

The fact that this movie only earned $2 million at the box office is very disturbing... disturbing because the movie is superb in every respect, from the script to the acting to the directing, the editing, you name it. Very powerful, a gripping flick. Of course, it's hard to make box office earnings if the "box office" (cinema corporations) refuse to present the movie, as happened in this case. But then, what government needs to censor the media if the media corporations do it themselves? "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" isn't a "message movie" but one can hardly ignore what it says about USAmerican xenophobia and how the nation's foreign policies actually create many of the problems it pretends to be solving. A "must see" movie in every respect.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday MorningA prominent American professor is kidnapped and held for ransom in Pakistan. With tensions on edge over this, journalist Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber) manages to gain an audience with suspected extremist preacher Changez (Riz Ahmed), who relays his story of how he left his family home in Lahore to travel to the States and use his skills as a financial analyst on Wall Street to great effect, until 9/11 struck and his appearance and background suddenly rendered him a terror suspect in everyone's eyes. Now, with time running out and violent clashes break out, Lincoln must get to the truth before time runs out.Controversial subjects are always a tough drug for those to swallow, especially it would seem, American audiences, which may be the reason TRF didn't get the exposure it could have got. Mira Nair has taken a sensitive topic and crafted a slow, lingering piece that takes it's time , even if at points it feels like it doesn't have something to say and the narrative flow gets lost in translation. It still offers an impressive character study and plenty of food for thought, with a credible, strong lead in Ahmed, as well as reliable support from the likes of Schreiber and Kiefer Sutherland.Nair's film never seems to carry any overt political leaning to it, or be attempting to shove any sort of ideology down our throats, even if it presents view points and concepts that might well put many viewers on edge. While displaying an admirable thoroughness, at times it feels as though Nair is trying to delve too deep, and show Changez's world crashing down in too hectic a fashion. While it's intended to feel every bit as uneasy as everything else he experiences, the scene where he finds his girlfriend Erica (Kate Hudson) has turned him in to an art exhibition has an unintentional hilarity to it, like he's just been on some prank TV show.A challenging, unnerving, mostly riveting experience, The Reluctant Fundamentalist accurately portrays it's lead character as true to the title, slightly messy, maybe a bit too ambitious, but still eye catching and absorbing experience. ***