Focusing on identity through boundaries, cultures, and national identification, The Reluctant Fundamentalist dissects the self-exploration of a Pakistani man in the post-September 11 world.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is set in 2011 Pakistan and is centered around Changez (Riz Ahmed), a professor at the university in Lahore. After his colleague, another professor that is American, is kidnapped, American intelligence in Pakistan are led to believe that Changeuz is anti-American, was involved with the kidnapping and has information regarding the American professor’s location. However, when American journalist Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber) begins to talk with Changez to attempt to gain information to help the CIA, Changez says upfront “I love America.” Changez then tells his life story starting with attending Princeton when he was 18 in the late 1990s, and six months after graduating from university and landing a job on corporate Wall Street, the planes struck the Twin Towers. The film then centers on the immediate aftermath of 9/11 – through Changez’s eyes – of a Middle Eastern in America who is struggling to search for, and deal with, his identity.

The point of the film is to re-think the American dream, searching for what you believe in, and how to live life according to your beliefs. The Reluctant Fundamentalist explores a very wide breadth and depth of issues that a Middle-Eastern would have faced (and is still facing) in post-9/11 America – sterotypes, struggling with identity through national and cultural boundaries, and both racial and religious discrimination. Through portraying 21st century American and Pakistani culture appropriately, the film compares throughout the past twelve years both how different these cultures are, and yet how similar people truly are through human nature and psychology.

The performance by Ahmed is beautiful and convincing, as he’s able to thoroughly act in a wide range of emotions and scenarios. Kate Hudson stars opposite Ahmed as Changez’s love interest, and she, somewhat surprisingly, gives a fantastic performance in this film on geopolitics. While Changez searches for his identity geopolitically, Hudson’s character, Erica, also searches for her identity through the aftermath of the death of her previous boyfriend – and the two characters and actors compliment each other quite nicely.

Artistically, the film achieved what it strived for – a snapshot of a man struggling to figure out his identity between his job, love interest, and homeland. Director Mira Nair and screenwriter Mohsin Hamid pull this off through a somewhat implausible, yet convincing plot. While The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a romance, thriller, and drama film that discusses American intelligence and identity, it is no where as complex – or politically-oriented – as other recent political thrillers such as Argo or Zero Dark Thirty.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is obviously extremely topical in today’s world. Although a bit over-done and implausible at times, the film overall makes the viewer think about one’s personal, national, and religious identity through today’s technological and ever-globalizing world.

Grade: B+

Rated: R (for language, some violence and brief sexuality)

The Reluctant Fundamentalist opens in theaters on May 2, 2013