Alicia I love this movie so much

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

ThurstonHunger I disagree with the notion that this film tries to do too much, I do agree that this film is a character study, an exceptional one. Om Puri is eminently watchable throughout. The film falsely dresses itself up as a comedy at the outset, then dabbles with an estranged father-son drama, veers toward a topical political fanaticism-cum-fascism treatise, flirts with a romance, all as a way to just keep your eye on that character study.More important than huge issues is the story of one man.So even when I found myself trying to do too much with the film while watching it, aligning the German businessman and Farid's fanatics both bruising to women and both desiring to remake that neighborhood for their own ulterior motives, I kept coming back to Parvez. Both the German and imam want to order Parvez about, but it is his sense of right and wrong, clearly flawed and at times hypocritical, that resonates most with me.The choice of having him be a taxi driver is excellent, someone surrounded by people in his job...but isolated from the at the same time. The character study is augmented not just by Puri's performance, but by having really excellent actors as foils to him. I find myself very curious about Minoo, Fizzy as well as Farid and Sandra of course. Even Stellan Skarsgard's Schitz will his fans I suspect, I was definitely curious about his plans.But I think Hanif Kureish has no plans for a segue, this film is not only about one man, but just this one moment in his life as well.7.5/10 Thurston Hunger

TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews We watched this in English class, after having read the short story, written by Hanif Kureishi. Going by how powerful the original text is, this is somewhat unimpressive. I think the real problem is that the short story was so compact, so rich in detail yet so brief, and it was thoroughly well-told. There are always problems when one lengthens a short story, and that fact is very evident here. There just isn't enough good material. There are attempts made at drama that fall flat, often due to the lack of proper build-up to them. Film requires more drama, stronger feelings. Maybe the story just wasn't suited for the medium. The original had the lead character's son filled with hatred, one instilled from an invisible enemy, leading to much frustration in the father. The ending was almost sublime in its pure emotion, the release experienced. Here, this enemy has gotten a face and a body, the hatred in the son isn't as credible(partially due to the son's occasional weakness, which stands in stark contrast to the strength of his convictions, both herein and in the original), and the ending is... just not anywhere near as strong as that of the book(it even messes up the original ending, by including the same scene, deprived of its powerful emotion, near the conclusion of the story here). Characters are added, some for little reason. Breaks of comedic relief are inserted, presumably to ease the heavy message, themes and story of the film. I suppose this could have been a good addition, but it just takes away from the serious nature of it. The plot is good, if some of the new material seems of little interest. The focus has shifted some; the film is entirely about Parvez, and how he relates to those around him. The pacing is decent enough, it doesn't drag too noticeably. The cinematography and editing is fine. It would be difficult to claim that it tries too hard, since it hardly tries at all. In spite of all the negatives, I'm glad to have seen this film, and I wish Kureishi more luck with feature films in the future... and I certainly will keep my eyes open for his other films. He's a quite gifted writer, I think the main problem here was that this story did not fit the medium and length of feature film. I recommend this to any fan of stories that deal with the cultures, in particular conflicts between them. 7/10

paul2001sw-1 Writer Hanif Kureshi has long been interested in the clash between Western decadence and fanatical Islam which, perceptively, he sees as a war that occurs not between civilisations but within individuals or, as in this film based on one of his books, families. In exploring the conflict between a secularised immigrant and his devout son, the film looks in all the right places, and is full of fine little cameo performances; but I didn't find it a wholly satisfactory affair. Om Puri's character (the father) is needed to hold the story together, but the part feels more like just one more cameo, albeit extended: it's a nicely drawn portrait of a man, but also a shallow one. Also, the film seems dated by its origins pre-dating 9/11. Kureshi refers back, albeit obliquely, to the Salman Rushie affair that first made political Islam an issue in the U.K.; subsequent terrorist atrocities have made the broad subject of this movie more pertinent, but its details less so. Perhaps the real problem is that we never really get to understand the son, who remains a mystery to us as much as he is to his father: an examination of the psychology of fanaticism, or (to cast it in a kinder light) simply that of belief, is strangely absent from the film.

Varlaam 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.