‘Profile’ Review: Underbaked with Little Impact

Based on the non-fiction book In The Skin of a Jihadist by Anna Erelle, Profile digs into the recruitment of young woman by ISIS as it follows an undercover journalist who gets swept up in the charade as she tries to balance her own life with her new online persona who has recently converted to Islam, all in the name of a good story. The film plays out much like a horror thriller, but the gimmick of its storytelling presentation quickly fades, leaving with an underbaked plot that leaves little impact.

Amy Whittaker (Valene Kane) is a journalist investigating ISIS and their recruitment of young women over social media. After creating a simple fake Facebook profile, she quickly gains the attention of one recruiter, Bilel (Shazad Latif), and soon finds herself putting on an entire fake persona to convince him that she intends to join his cause in order to unearth the tactics they use on other women. But the longer the con goes on for, the deeper Amy becomes entangled in her alternate life as it starts to affect her other relationships and even her own feelings towards Bilel.

The entire film is presented through the computer screen using video chats, web searches, and everything else Amy watches or types in to tell a story through her own eyes. If you’ve ever seen Searching or Unfriended then you’re familiar with the style. It’s a good way to directly connect with a character and the less cinematic approach often makes it feel more authentic and realistic. Given the story’s subject matter, it works for Profile. But the style’s impact doesn’t last for too long, and the story and character quickly fall into routine where the dramatization of the script doesn’t do the film any favors.

The film is based on a true story and tries to deliver an overall message about the dangers jihadist recruitment, but my mind kept constantly thinking that you’re much better off either reading the book itself or watching a documentary on the subject. The narrative aspect of the film doesn’t add anything to its message, and in fact only muddles it further. It starts off interesting enough but as the story progresses it just gets more and more outrageous.

Profile has an interesting enough subject matter, but it’s delivery is spotty at best. It’s good for a few intense horror-like moments, but does little else.