The Reluctant Fundamentalist

It caught my attention first that Kate Hudson dyed her hair dark, and surprisingly, that meant I didn't dislike her right from the start. Isn't that the foundation of success? As it turns out, no. This is a fairly straightforward, or rather clichéd romance, spiced up only by the fact that the male character in this romance is an Arab, and most of the crucial events unfold against the backdrop of September 11, 2001. It leads to automatically sympathizing with the hero, but on the other hand, it's understandable why. The Americans were truly paranoid. This is what only two scenes present. The rest is quite a transparent drama that overstays its welcome. (15.01.2014)

I really did not understand what the fundamentalist was doing here. While I will never understand the contemporary world of Muslims, on the other hand, I accept that they are also human beings, just like the rest of us, and that they also may or may not think at least partly reasonably. This movie pretends to be terribly objective and deliberately does not side with anyone. Somehow it moves through an area it doesn’t want to dig into and comfortably leaves it at the end of the journey. As a result, it is neither funny nor interesting. (16.10.2013)