The Fundamentals of watching The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Our Reluctant star, receiving tutelage from his boss/mentor Kiefer Sutherland

A movie based on a very good book, I've heard, The Reluctant Fundamentalist charters into similar territories that the series Homeland does.  What makes a person so loyal and devoted to a team, suddenly turn to play for the other side?

I find this basis for a story lures me in every time.  Why did Mathilde Carre go from French Resistance femme fatale to German double agent?  More recently, why did the Australian-Israeli Ben Zygier join Mossad and then pass information to Hezbollah?  Why did the Malaysian immigrant to Australia end up joining an equally disparate community in Indigenous Australia, instead of just returning home?

The Reluctant Fundamentalist follows a young man, Changez (Riz Ahmed), who was born in Pakistan and emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 18 and then studied at a prestigious university and made a success (relative term) of himself by entering a high flying Wall Street job and getting a spunky artsy girlfriend.

Riz Ahmed grows a beard, shock, horror.

 He thinks he has it all but quite a few shitty things happen and his view of the world gets flipped around.  He ends up moving back to Pakistan and it is here that we meet him in the current day, getting interrogated by a C.I.A. operative.  He asks the C.I.A. fella to listen to his entire story before he casts judgement, and this series of recollections forms the basis of the film.

I won't reveal any more because it drives me insane when people spoil plots and I'm really interested in the picture.  I will however, reveal what I think of it.  I found the concept thrilling and wanted to delve deeply into the psyche of this man.  The movie didn't disappoint, but I left feeling I wanted to know this man more.  Maybe it was just too much to squeeze into a single film.

I came to understand why people do jump ship and work for the other side.  We are always influenced by our surroundings, it is dynamic and whoever says they are loyal just haven't been enticed or dissuaded about the other team.  I think I have always known that, but this film reaffirmed it.  No one is static in life.

Newsroom: Sorkin Attempts Fifth Estate

Aaron Sorkin of The Social Network, West Wing presents the world of cable news television in this series set in 2011.

It has some good qualities.  They take a critical view of the current news reporting situation in America, and the sensationalism or tabloidisation style that is deeply embedded.  The females wear nice office clothes.  You see all the action of an editing suite.  I'm clutching at straws.

On the other hand, it is consistently irritating.  Each episode has furiously paced sets of conversations and monologues, in which flashy intellectual superiority is showcased.  Uber sarcastic comments are used as ammunition in arguments, which aren't humourous because they're dressed up to be this smarter and holier-than-thou diatribe.  Characters are cliched and there is no opportunity to delve into personalities and emotions.  Even Will McAvoy, the deeply troubled anchorman, is a bore at the psychiatrist's office.

Embattled boss ranting at staff

One of the characters is preoccupied with Bigfoot being real.  It could have worked, but the premise and execution is so unbelievable that it makes you want to fast forward to the end.  There are 2 romantic relationships brewing, and the tension is dragged out.  But you know it is going to happen in the end as it is formulaic and predictable, as are the main plotlines.

Common Scene: Ranting

The staff at the newsroom claim to be upholding journalistic fourth estate principles, but end up being sanctimonious and targeting certain groups in the US (Republicans, Tea Party).  The Anchor is ridiculously aggressive in his approach to interviewing, which you would think would normally be a good quality in a solid interviewer, but he doesn't pull back or give people room to explain themselves.  Bullying dressed up as journalistic integrity. 

Further intent to explore humour results in splashes of slapstick which fail terribly as the moments feel contrived.  Constant counterfeit anger and lack of subtlety in manic pseudo-intellectual arguments lead to viewer disengagement.  For a look at a top notch series examining journalistic integrity and passionate reporting, seek out The Hour, a BBC series that is set in the 1950s.