Release
Date: October 19, 2007 Studio: New Line Cinema Director: Gavin Hood Screenwriter: Kelley Sane Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Alan Arkin, Peter Saarsgard,
Meryl Streep Genre: Thriller
Review: Roger Ebert called it
"perfect," and certainly the timing couldn't have been much better: Rendition
was released just as the U.S. was debating anew the issue of "extraordinary
rendition," a policy (begun under the Clinton administration, accelerated after
September 11, 2001) of handing over suspected terrorists to countries that use
torture as an interrogation tool. Alas, the movie only rarely fills in the
outlines of a prototypical "issue movie," the kind of thing peopled by cardboard
characters tracing the patterns of an important, indeed urgent, subject. The
plot kicks into gear when an Egyptian-born man (Omar Metwally) is sent to an
unnamed North African country where torture is practiced, with the CIA in
approval. The film takes a Crash dive through how this affects various
people: his pregnant American wife (Reese Witherspoon), the reluctant CIA agent
(Jake Gyllenhaal) on the scene, a severe interrogator (Yigal Naor), all the way
up to a U.S. terrorism honcho (Meryl Streep) willing to turn a blind eye to the
unpleasantness if it stops a terrorist attack. Things spark briefly when
Witherspoon enlists an old beau (Peter Sarsgaard) to plead her case with his
boss, a U.S. Senator (Alan Arkin), but for the most part director Gavin Hood (Totsi)
can't find a way to color in these line drawings, despite the formidable actors
doing spirited work. The issue is fully and lucidly explained, but the movie
doesn't come alive...more
Movie Spotlight
Rendition Release
Date: October 19, 2007 Studio: New Line Cinema Director: Gavin Hood Screenwriter: Kelley Sane Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Alan Arkin, Peter Saarsgard,
Meryl Streep Genre: Thriller MPAA Rating: R (for torture/violence and language) Official Website: Renditionmovie.com
Plot Summary: Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Peter
Sarsgaard and Alan Arkin star in "Rendition," a thriller from director Gavin
Hood ("Tsotsi"). Witherspoon stars as the American wife of an Egyptian-born
chemical engineer who disappears on a flight from South Africa to Washington.
The woman desperately tries to track her husband down, while a CIA analyst (Gyllenhaal)
at a secret detention facility outside the U.S. is forced to question his
assignment as he becomes party to the man's unorthodox interrogation
EN 5 Second Review:
What a cast, what a crap movie. I was surprised it could be this bad
with this cast
Rendition
makes the case that torture, whatever name it goes under, is
indefensible, yet one can agree with that view entirely and
still feel that the movie is just a borderline exploitation
of what anyone who reads the papers already knows Owen Glieberman: EW
Moviegoers, in case you haven't noticed, are in the midst of
a siege of films about the war in Iraq and the politics of
the post-9/11 world (at this point, the two are
inseparable). So far, though, it isn't at all clear that
moviegoers are interested...more
Hot
off the headlines, this is one timely thriller that delivers
its message with a huge punch and no heavy speechifying Rex Reed: NY Observer
Powerful, shocking and mandatory, Rendition is a
disturbing film that should be required viewing for every
school and civic group in America, and then the world. They
could start at the White House...more
Release
Date: October 19, 2007
EN 5 Second Review:
What a cast, what a crap movie. I was surprised it could be this bad
with this cast
Hot
off the headlines, this is one timely thriller that delivers
its message with a huge punch and no heavy speechifying