6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A young Pakistani man is chasing corporate success on Wall Street. He finds himself embroiled in a conflict between his American Dream, a hostage crisis, and the enduring call of his family's homeland.
Starring: Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber, Kiefer Sutherland, Om PuriDrama | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: LPCM 2.0
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
The "post-9/11 novel" is practically its own sub-genre at this point, but we're still too close to the event to have a single work of fiction that stands out
as the defining, definitive book on our times, one that captures the global scope of the intercultural changes the War on Terror has wrought
and tells a compelling story of an individual life within this new milieu. Not that there aren't a few glowing candidates. Along with Don DeLillo's
Falling Man and Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist—
a New York Times bestseller published in 2007—has a spot at the top of the short list. A slim-but-ambitious novel of great perception, it examines the
Islamic world's attitudes towards the U.S. through the eyes of a Pakistani emigre whose pursuit of the American Dream leaves him soulless. (And
possibly, reluctantly, a fundamentalist.)
Essentially one long dramatic monologue, it's not a particularly cinematic novel, which makes it an odd choice for a film adaptation. And sure enough, a
number of changes were needed to bring the book to the screen, to the extent that "inspired by" is perhaps a better phrase to use here than "based
on." Some of these alternations—which were overseen by Hamid himself, assisting screenwriter William Wheeler—spoil the novel's experimental
structure and narrative ambiguity, bringing what might've been an innovative drama into conventional political thriller territory. If not bold,
though, it's at least competent, guided by the intuition and first-hand experience of Indian director Mira Nair, who, like the book's protagonist, once left
the Subcontinent for an Ivy League education and a seat at the table of the American elite. If anyone could film this novel with authenticity, it would
be her.
IFC's Blu-ray release of The Reluctant Fundamentalist is very watchable from a normal viewing distance, but there are some noticeable compression problems when you take a closer look at the 1080p/AVC encode. In the scene where Changez and Erica first go to bed together, there are blotches of extremely visible macroblocking in the shadows on and around her face. In a few other scenes, fine color gradients are broken up by splotchy artifacts and the distinctive stair-step patterns of banding. Elsewhere in the film, however, these issues disappear completely, which suggests they are specific to the post-processing of particular scenes and not an indication of global, across-the-board compression. (The film does sit on a 50 GB disc, after all, so it should have plenty of room.) These concerns are certainly worth noting, but they're unlikely to prove huge distractions unless you're viewing the film on an exceptionally large screen or through a projector. For the most part, the picture is clear and vivid, with normal amounts of source noise for a film shot digitally in what looks like mostly natural light. Fine detail is usually visible in the actors' faces and clothing—though there are certainly some moments of weird mushiness—and the color grading is balanced and complementary to the mood of each location. This is a case where we should be wary not to miss the forest for the few compression-ridden trees.
The disc includes two audio options, a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track and an uncompressed Linear PCM 2.0 stereo mix-down. Functionally, there's very little difference between the two, as the multi-channel offering is exceptionally front-heavy, utilizing the real speakers only for brief spells of quiet ambience—tea house chatter, the chants and jeers of the student protestors—and reverb-tinged bleeding room for composer Michael Andrews' East-meets-West orchestral score. What the mix lacks in immersion, it makes up in rock-solid clarity and dynamic expressiveness, with clear dialogue, thumping lows, and crisp highs. There's not much that stands out here, sound design-wise, but the track has no real shortcomings either. Optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles are available in bright yellow lettering.
The oft-repeated summation—"the book was better than the movie"—certainly applies to The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Where the novel trades in ambiguity and a subtle, near-philosophical treatment of the post-9/11 world, the movie flashes its big ideas in neon lights—in one case literally, see Erica's I've-got-a-Pakistani-boyfriend art installation—and feels compelled to add an unnecessary subplot about a kidnapped professor. Nonetheless, director Mira Nair has crafted a film that looks authentic and offers a perspective different from most War on Terror movies, which tend to see the world only through American eyes. This, and star Riz Ahmed's excellent performance, are reason enough to check it out. Recommended.
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