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Rendition (2007)

DVD Cover (New Line Studios)
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Overall Rating 68%
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Ranked #2,243
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After a terrorist bombing kills an American envoy in a foreign country, an investigation leads to an Egyptian who has been living in the United States for years and who is married to an American. He is apprehended when he's on his way home. The U.S. sends him to the country where the incident occurs for interrogation, which includes torture. An American C.I.A. operative observes the interrogation and is at odds whether to keep it going or to stop it. In the meantime, the man's wife raises hell to find him, but the person behind this refuses to help or give her any information. --IMDb
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Review by bluemeanie
Added: October 21, 2007
Director Gavin Hood is the South African born filmmaker who took home the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for his 2005 motion picture "Tsotsi". With that film, he showed a clear eye for story construction and illustrated his keen ability to extract powerful performances at just about every turn. "Rendition" is his first film since he was thrust into prominence, and it is a film that shows occasional promise and manages to keep the audience interested, but at the end of the day - it's really just a film about some amazing performances, and little else. Before I begin with the review portion of the film, I should let you know that 'rendition' is an act by which the United States government can take a prisoner to another country to be held for an undisclosed period of time, if the government suspects that person of conspiring with terrorists. You would think this film would be more on the lines of "Syriana" in terms of execution, and you would be correct, but this films lacks the grit and emotional power that made "Syriana" so masterful. Many people had been touting this film as an extreme Oscar front-runner earlier in the year. However, I have a problem thinking the majority of voters will respond to a film that really accomplishes very little and does so in a very pedestrian and very cliched manner. "Rendition" is only halfway good.

The film opens with an explosion in a South African square. Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal), a C.I.A. operative, watches his colleague die and is immediately made to replace him. The bomb was supposed to kill Abasi Fawal (Yigal Naor), who supervises the torture sessions for those men who are brought to the country through 'rendition'. Fawal is also looking for his daughter, Fatima (Zineb Oukach), who ran away and is now running with Khalid (Moa Khouas), who wants to avenge the death of his brother. The man who is taken through 'rendition' is Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), who is taken at the airport right before he is to meet his wife, Isabella (Reese Witherspoon) and and his son (Aramis Knight). Isabella immediately begins inquiring into the disappearance of her husband, but gets nowhere. She enlists the help of an old friend and former flame, Alan Smith (Peter Sarsgaard), who works for Senator Hawkins (Alan Arkin). She and Alan start digging and eventually stumble upon the unbelievable truth - Anwar has been taken because he is believed to have associated with known terrorists, something Isabella denies. Meryl Streep co-stars as Corrine Whitman, who gives the orders for anyone to be taken through 'rendition'. The film cuts between Gyllenhaal's character objecting to the forms of torture used, to scenes of Witherspoon and Sarsgaard trying to find her husband, to scenes of Naor looking for his daughter and trying to piece everything together. There's a lot of jumping around, back and forth.

There's way too much going on in "Rendition" for everything to receive as much attention as it probably deserves. One thing that struck me was how basic and typical a lot of the production was. The cinematography was nothing special, nor was the original score or the torture sequences. The whole film felt rather tired and kind of lackluster in how it minimalized everything. There are so many shots of people sitting down waiting on other people and people standing around talking to other people - I wanted to see something more, I guess. What helped raise the film above a certain level of disdain, for me, was the ending. I didn't see the twist coming and it made perfect sense. I sat there for a while, trying to figure out what was going on, and as soon as it connected, I was more than satisfied at having been treated to a nice bit of cinematic trickery. That ending alone is going to give "Rendition" a recommendation. But, the performances are to mentioned also. Alas, before we get into all of that good stuff, I want to point out that this film does do a lot. Nothing substantial really happens and the final scene is so cookie cutter and so cliched that I couldn't believe I was watching it right after that amazing ending. Had "Rendition" lived up to the level of excellence of that ending, it would have easily been one of the best films of the year.

In terms of performances - all one needs to do is look at that cast list, right? Wrong. Turns out that most of the best performances come from the actors you don't know. The standout in the entire film is Yigal Naor as Abasi. I would love to see a Best Supporting Actor nomination for this guy because he chews the scenery like a shark. He brings his scenes to life in ways the other actors can't even imagine. Also quite effective is Omar Metwally as Anwar. It is so easy to say that torture scenes are easy to play, but you can feel the pain on his face with every volt. Peter Sarsgaard and Alan Arkin have some nice scene work together, and they are serviceable in their roles, but it's Meryl Streep who gets to be the villain this time around and she plays is with gusto and real zeal. She has fun playing nasty and she is so good here, with that thick country drawl. Also watch for actor J.K. Simmons is a nice supporting role. The two leads, however, disappoint. Jake Gyllenhaal doesn't do a damned thing in this movie. We keep seeing these pointless scenes of him drinking or smoking or shirtless or whatever else - nothing of any real substance. And, I'm sorry - he looks far too young to be doing what he's doing. I couldn't buy him in the role. As for Reese Witherspoon, she is borderline screeching in this role. Her emotion is high, her voice is high and her belly is big, but she doesn't look like she's really giving anything in this performance.

From that less than stellar review, you'd think I wouldn't be recommending "Rendition". However, as I mentioned before, that ending was strong enough to get my seal of approval. A lot of people will probably enjoy the film far more than I did, but I just kept getting the feeling that I had seen all of this before. Nothing new. Nothing really original. I was entertained, primarily, for some strong performances from Naor, Metwally, Streep and Simmons. And, they didn't get nearly as much screen time as Gyllenhaal and Witherspoon, who were tiresome from the start. Nothing is resolved at the very end of the film. We don't know if Streep's character gets any sort of comeuppance. We don't know what happens to Gyllenhaal after he does what he does. We don't know how any of this affects the marriage between Metwally and Witherspoon. We are left in the dark. Normally, that is all right, but not when we've just had the rug pulled out from under us. Gavin Hood's newest film doesn't deliver like his previous, but the things that work really work. I recommend this film with the asterisk that I only recommend it because of the ending, which I found impeccable.

6.5/10.
Edd #1: Edd - added October 22, 2007 at 4:07pm
HA! This movie was horrible. The poor man's Syriana. 1/10
bluemeanie #2: bluemeanie - added October 22, 2007 at 4:34pm
I thought it was a pale imitation of "Syriana" myself, but I think I liked it a bit more than you did. I thought the ending was enough to give it a recommendation because I really didn't seem the whole 'time switch' thing coming. I also thought a couple of the performances were rock solid.
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