Profile
directed by Timur Bekmambetov
The director produced the similar themed film Unfriended 2: Dark Web, reviewed here. As with Unfriended 2 everything takes place on a computer or phone screen.
directed by Timur Bekmambetov
Profile is based on a true story that examined the phenomenon of successful ISIS recruitment of young Western, i.e. white, European women.
Theoretically, when examining this experience, people might have something to say about the thrill of the bad boy to some women, the possibility that the dying standards or rejected morality of one group will inevitably be replaced by those of another, whether immigration that places groups with competing historical grievances and incompatible cultural ideas in the same space is wise, whether people need examples of positive masculinity or femininity, and various other discussions that might make both feminists and traditionalists equally uncomfortable.
Bekmambetov avoids those discussions. The director focuses, with one major exception, on whether one person (or both) will discover that the other person on the computer/phone screen is not who he or she claims to be.
This is intermittently exciting but I think the movie would have been stronger if it included a few of the aforementioned issues. Instead, the film often made the lead actress look dumb.
Even before Jeffrey Toobin got caught making himself happy on a company Zoom call, I think most people knew that it was smart to keep work and personal id's, phones, and computers separate.
When Amy insists on more expensive living arrangements than the couple can afford, Matt assents, but declares that they must prepare their own meals and eat in more often, something that is an apparent affront to Amy's feminist bona fides.
Focused on her own career, Amy has little interest in accompanying Matt to his critical work events.
This annoys Matt, though he tries to hide it.
Intrigued by a young British girl who converted to Islam and joined ISIS, Amy decides to investigate ISIS recruitment. Who does it? How does it work? Why are any British women attracted to ISIS?
Amy creates a fake facebook profile as Melody Nelson, a recent Muslim convert. Under that name, Amy starts sharing radical Islamic posts. Amy is contacted by one Bilel (Shazad Latif) an ISIS fighter in Syria, who despite his South Asian ethnic origin, is British born and raised.
Although Bilel claims to be only interested in the struggle it's soon evident that Bilel would not be regularly calling a male convert or even an ugly female one. During her daily Skype conversations with Bilel Amy finds it more difficult to determine where she stops and Melody begins.
Amy starts to feel a certain way about the tall, charismatic, handsome, cat loving, and optimistic Bilel. Bilel is teaching her how to cook in more ways than one. Will "Melody" accept Bilel's invitation to the next level? Is Amy investigating a dangerous terrorist or looking for something missing in her life?
This "relationship" could fall apart with one poorly conceived cover story detail, a too pushy question, or a computer screen displaying (contradictory) private information. This film works for the first two thirds of its running time. The film should have been about 30 minutes shorter. This intense movie had a claustrophobic feel to it, which was presumably the point.
