Rendition

Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Omar Metwally, Meryl Streep, J.K. Simmons, Peter Sarsgaard, Alan Arkin
Directed by: Gavin Hood
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Thriller
2007

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: An Egyptian-American (Omar Metwally) is arrested to be investigated for a link to a dangerous terrorist. He is sent to an African nation, where he is tortured and held without a trial. His wife (Reese Witherspoon) frantically tries to locate him while the American (Jake Gyllenhaal) assigned to oversee his torture begins to question whether he is actually guilty after all.

Review:

Tim: I think I am finally getting tired of all the Middle-Eastern, terrorist movies. So many have been coming out of Hollywood as of late, and honestly, I am just very tired of them. This movie represents a slight departure from many of them, although I still became slightly bored.

I suppose Rendition is a fairly good movie. It follows the mutliple-stories-are-all-connected plot, and does shed some light on the fairly reprehensible practice of rendition. It also conveys well the bluring of right and wrong, black and white, that the United States moved toward after 9/11. This is frightening to see, but I applaud the film for not painting the U.S. in the best of light (it is far more realistic this way).

Jake Gyllenhaal was good in the role, but I felt like he was too restrained. He never really explodes with any emotion. Reese Witherspoon actually does explode with emotion a few times, but I still expected a bit more out of her. Meryl Streep gives another chillingly, morally ambiguous performance. The rest of the cast is decent.

The film does have a few good moments. The explosion in the marketplace is memorable, as are the scenes of torture. There is one big revelation which is pretty startling, and the scenes with Witherspoon in the Senator's office are at least interesting. The film's final resolution feels a bit weak. I would have loved to have more backstory on Gyllenhaal's character. I felt he was a Humphrey Bogartesque character, but without greater character depth and history, this ends up a weaker part of the overall film. Gyllenhaal gives a good performance, but it is the character who is lacking.

Rendition does enough right to be enjoyable, but it is a far cry from the award-worthy films it strives to emulate. It has a number of problems, but the positives do outweigh the negatives. Worst of all (in the grand scheme of things), it represents the point where I started to tire of these politically "important" movies. It will take an amazingly great picture to get me back on the wagon.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Syriana, In the Valley of Elah, The Kingdom