Profile
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Writer: Britt Poulton, Olga Kharina, Timur Bekmambetov, Anna Erelle (Original Author)
Starring: Valene Kane, Shazad Latif, Morgan Watkins, Christine Adams, Emma Carter, Amir Bahimzadeh
Reason for watching: new release (although for whatever reason this movie is listed as a 2018 movie)
Number of times I’ve watched it: first time viewing
***
Every couple of years, somebody comes us with a new way to scare people in movies. The Blair Witch Project started the found footage genre. Saw started the gore genre. Something else before that started the slasher genre (maybe Texas Chainsaw Massacre). Something else before that started the demonic/possession genre (maybe The Exorcist). I’m not the best film historian, as much as I wish I was; but I do know that a new trend pops up fairly often. This particular trend started with movies like Unfriended which used common household cameras and applications like Facetime and Skype. It was improved upon with movies like Searching which documented a father’s search to find his missing daughter as he divided into plenty of applications and documents on various devices to find her. And Profile follows in that same vein as Searching.
We follow investigative journalist Amy (Valene Kane) as she pretends to be a recent Muslim convert so she can infiltrate an extremist group run by Abu (Shazad Latif) so she can find out how they are pulling women into these groups. The conflicting influences of her boss (Christine Adams) and her boyfriend (Morgan Watkins) confuse her as she falls into the trap of this enticing extremist. Abu truly convinces her of his feelings for her and how he can help herEventually she has all the information she needs to make a very interesting story. However, she is faced with the choice of joining Abu and his group, something she has actual interest, or sharing the story and getting her big break in the business.
First of all, the use of a computer desktop as your camera lens is still so unexplored that I am always enticed when it’s used in a movie. Seeing Amy bounce back and forth between personal business and her job and her relationship with Abu, we get to watch her rapid loss of confidence and self-assuredness. Watching how attached she becomes to Abu as well convinces us of how she truly is teetering between joining his group and publishing her story. On top of this, Valene Kane and Shazad Latif have a strong chemistry when they are literally on a screen together. It reminds you how easy it can be to fall for someone when you’re talking online rather than in person.
I must admit, while this is a true story, I think it suffers from a lack of depth in our antagonist. We understand that he is a part of a radical group and Amy uncovers a number of terrible things that his group participates in, but she never quite gets at what is driving him to be an extremist and do what he does. I think this added depth would have improved our connection to him as an idealist. Without this kind of depth, the feelings Amy develops for him seem to be more of surface crush than a deeper connection which is what her attraction is meant to look like. The characters seem a little undercooked here.
In keeping with what was mentioned earlier, I still enjoyed the movie and how it portrayed this story.
7/10
Until I see another one