In “The War Within,” a Pakistani-born engineer with a Western education becomes radicalized by his arrest and brutal imprisonment. Scarred in every way, he arrives in the United States to seek some explosive revenge. As he prepares a terror attack, he bides his time in the New Jersey home of his best friend.
This searing, frightening film, directed by Joseph M. Castelo, never answers the question as fully as it might. Injustice leads too simply to jihad, despite the complex lead performance by Ayad Akhtar as Hassan, the victim turned villain. Although Castelo infuses the action with all the dark dread of a Darren Aronofsky film, “The War Within” succeeds only as a thriller with some wartime overtones, rather than as a character study that thrills.
Whether Western riches soften brains is one unresolved theme in the script, which Castelo wrote with Akhtar and Tom Glynn, one of the producers. Amid the home-
cooked meals and wide-eyed kids, Hassan enjoys new comforts and entertains amorous thoughts about his friend’s sister. But Hassan has some evil to do. After his sleeper cell is raided, he begins to doubt when, if ever, the mission might resume.
He also begins to doubt the resolve of the bombing mastermind, who is among the clientele at a strip club called Saints and Sinners. That shadowy figure has the nerve to question Hassan’s new domestic arrangement, which he had kept a secret from his fellow terrorists. “You’re getting comfortable,” says the mastermind.
“I know about the family,” he adds accusingly.
The film is staggeringly plausible. The main drawback is that as skilled as he is at setting up scenes, Castelo doesn’t respect the volatility of the elements in his hands.
**1/2 | “The War Within”
NOT RATED |1 hour, 45 minutes|POLITICAL DRAMA|Directed by Joseph Castelo; written by Ayad Akhtar, Castelo and Tom Glynn; photography by Lisa Rinzler; starring Ayad Akhtar, Firdous Bamji, Nandana Sen, Sarita Choudhury, Charles Daniel Sandoval, John Ventimiglia |Opens today at the Mayan.