The Reluctant Fundamentalist 2013

Richard and Mary Corliss, TIME Magazine: A movie imposing in its breadth and depth. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Ambiguity is at the heart of the novel, but Nair is never quite sure what to do with it. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: 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. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: 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. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The movie's failures are all the more unfortunate because they detract from its central and conspicuous success, the performance of Riz Ahmed in the title role. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Takes [the book's] riveting tale and flattens it, blunting much of the nuance that made it a great read. Read more

Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times: Handsomely crafted and smartly performed, the film works on its own terms. But in expanding the story's canvas, it dilutes rather than translates the power of the book. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Illuminating but heavy-handed. Read more

Sam Adams, AV Club: When Nair tries to take in the larger picture, her focus goes slack, and all that's left is a blur. Read more

Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic: It most disappoints as a thriller, the flashbacks and voiceovers and romantic entanglements so dominating the proceedings you forget that someone is bound and gagged in real time. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This sure-handed adaptation of Mohsin Hamid's international best seller shows Nair at her best. Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: It's a dogged, thoughtful and well-acted movie that might have been more effective if it kept a narrower focus. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Timeliness is certainly on the side of Mira Nair's uneven but fascinating The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: As a culture-clash story the film works well enough, but as a character study it's a bit of a scramble. Read more

Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter: The tense dialogue between East and Post post-9/11 is turned into a tense, often gripping duet between a young Muslim professor and American reporter. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: If there ever was a time to see "The Reluctant Fundamentalist," that time is here and now. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Fairly insightful as a drama, but barely adequate as a thriller. Ahmed is pitch-perfect as the conflicted hero, but he's in two movies that cancel each other out. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: The Reluctant Fundamentalist collapses in a heap of wool-gathering humanism that feels warm to the touch, yet fatally hedges its political bets. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Ahmed keeps bringing the focus back to an intriguingly ambiguous center. His scenes with Schreiber have a crackling tension, and he pushes back against the script's obvious manipulations. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: Alas, the film's relevance - and ultimately sane upshot - is buried beneath a meandering and oft-implausible plot. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Despite the charismatic efforts of the British actor Ahmed, The Reluctant Fundamentalist gets bogged down in proselytizing and plot. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Deliberately ambiguous, "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" provides just enough answers while leaving us with more than enough questions. Read more

Omer Mozaffar, Chicago Sun-Times: As the story unfolds, new dimensions change our perceptions of the central characters, sometimes for better, and occasionally for worse. The point is that every character and every setting has at least two sides. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Nair's film draws a clear parallel between violent Islamic fundamentalism and job-destroying capitalist economic fundamentalism, and firmly rejects both. If only good intentions made up for heavy-handed dramatics. Read more

Robert Everett-Green, Globe and Mail: It's a timely narrative subject, but its treatment in The Reluctant Fundamentalist is fundamentally flawed. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Nair has found a real gem in Riz Ahmed, who anchors the film with a charismatically watchable performance. He's in virtually every frame and you hang on his every word. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: All the elements are there to tell a sharp, strong story, but director Mira Nair and screenwriter William Wheeler take the events of the day and simplify them into a blunt force object where subtlety and wit are replaced by sermonizing and melodramatics. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: 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. Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Director Mira Nair chooses to go flabbily macro with the story's riches-to-radicals themes, as opposed to pointedly micro. Read more

Jonathan Kiefer, Village Voice: At times it's dense and sluggish, too much like a novel. But there is some exhilaration to be had ... Read more