My Son the Fanatic

A Pakistani taxi driver in Britain (Om Puri) is plagued by a bad cosmic joke that seems co-written by Salman Rushdie and Martin Amis: his son, rather than becoming an unrecognizable assimilate, turns into a jihad-embracing Muslim fundamentalist. At the same time, the warmth of a white hooker (Rachel Griffiths) beckons, to the chagrin and hissing tongues of his local countrymen.

The writer Hanif Kureishi's onetime Benetton smugness has mellowed into ripe colors of rue, mockery and regret as he eases into middle age, and this adaptation of his short story is a lovely, surprisingly beautifully shot, sneakily haunting small movie. The dialogue sometimes has a novelish explicitness, and the performances are variable--Puri sometimes drifts into F. Murray Abraham terrain, but he has an amazing, craggy, pain-absorbent face. But the movie has a real subject: the ways in which postmod culture-hybridity isn't always a rainbow-colored day at the beach. And the warmth amid desperation of the central relationship suggests what Neil Jordan's MONA LISA might have been without the smoky-sax romanticism.

The sad thing about seeing this movie was that, after Miramax gave the movie one of their unceremonious heave-hos (par for the course for their good movies), the audience, unblanketed by buzz, hype, an aura of hot-ticket, reacted as shruggingly as critics seem to have. Too bad: MY SON THE FANATIC evokes the sweet, melancholy fatalism of seventies pictures like THE NICKEL RIDE and STRAIGHT TIME. It has the atmosphere of an overcast crime picture without the crime. And it has at least a handful of real, breathing people in it--as rare an occurrence these days as a flight of the dodo.

Unremittingly difficult to sit through this one. Whoever finds any comic relief in its minor ironies ("Fingerhut," "Mr. Shits," etc.) is just not concentrating on the main theme. This is a film about people living out their lives in more or less distinct states of alienation from those around them as well as from their own self-concepts. As with all such stories, there is nothing to laugh about.

Be that as it may, the actors and the direction are first-rate. While nothing much happens to develop plot, a great deal comes into view in progressively more intimate sketches that delineate character and advance one's awareness of just how "out of synch" everyone is. Central to appreciating it all is how easily universal values of love, compassion, integrity, and objectivity come unstuck when someone heeds the call of looking for greener pastures.

Specifically, the problem of ambitious people moving out of their native countries to find a better life elsewhere is one that we find in history and literature from the beginning of time. And even more specifically, the clash of one culture or religion with another -- together with elements of racism and competition -- are certainly nothing new to cinematic representations. This is a kind of story with neither end nor beginning, only one bitter scene fading into another.

A very dark film indeed.

While this film is superficially about East Indian immigrants in Yorkshire, its themes are universal. Anyone who is or is related to an immigrant should feel at home here.

As far as religion goes, these characters could be Jewish or Christian as easily as Moslem. The mediaevalist/modernist conflict is the same. There's no reason why the audience for this film should be just a parochial one.

Om Puri gives a brilliant and nuanced performance as the central character, the resilient Punjabi cab driver. Rachel Griffiths is very fine as always as his kindred spirit, a hooker, although her character here is a little more limited in scope than those she portrayed in "Muriel's Wedding" and especially "Hilary and Jackie". Stellan Skarsgård also steps into a pair of shoes a few sizes smaller than those he has worn in the past.

Unheralded though it may have been, this is another thoughtful comedy-drama from Hanif Kureishi, author of "My Beautiful Laundrette" amongst others.

I think this movie will resonate especially with any first-and-up generation person whose parents emigrated from east to west. The innocence and almost childlike approach taken by Parvez, Om Puri's character, to things light and dark in England reminded me very much of my own experiences in trying to show my parents "how things work" in America. He has done a beautiful job with this character. All in all a well-written and enlightening movie for anyone who is curious about the complex and often convoluted dynamic between immigrants and their transplanted realities.

This is a great film, however I must comment that I have found many foreign films listed as "comedy" or "humorous" when in fact they are poignant, disturbing and brilliant (thank you netflix and blockbuster). "No Man's Land" and "Happy Times" are fantastic movies that are incorrectly labeled as comedy, and "My Son the Fanatic" is regrettably categorized as comedy as well. The reality of each character's life is vivid and heart breaking. I felt so uncomfortable witnessing Parvez struggle with his peers, the German, his wife and son, and Bettina. Coupled with "My Beautiful Laundrette" you get a taste of immigrant life in Britain.