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Rendition
Rendition asks, "torture - necessary evil or just plain evil?" It's far from torturous to watch, but it's fairly clear where the loyalties lie.
Rendition is a political thriller without the usual in-your-face message. Even if you get bored at politics (like me), you'll still find enough to interest you here - though there is nothing in the way of action for the adrenaline junkies. I enjoyed this film: I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: To enjoy this film you should be: able to stay awake without car chases.
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Director Gavin Hood's last movie was Tsotsi, which won the 2006 Oscar for best foreign language film, so you'd expect a lot
from him. Rendition is a somewhat safer bet, having a trio of Oscar winners in Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep and
Alan Arkin to play with, all of whom satisfy without impressing. Jake Gyllenhaal gives a very understated performance,
so much so that you'll be hard pressed to remember he was in it when you look back on the movie next year. The best
performance comes from the unknown Omar Metwally, playing pregnant Reese Witherspoon's husband who is plucked from the
airport by the US Department of Naughty People and subjected to rendition - that is, removal to a country whose laws allow
torture.
Apparently he has had calls to his mobile from a terrorist who subsequently blew up a crowded marketplace, but he knows
nothing about it. And so it begins...
It's not often that a movie's plot continually surprises me, but Rendition's did. Every time I thought it was going one
way, it went the other, and so you'd be best advised to read as little as possible about the movie before you see it.
In particular, the secondary thread of the story, featuring young forbidden lovers in the area affected by the attack, is
especially satisfying if you don't already know where it's going. It's not that it's unpredictable per se - looking back
on it, I could've seen it coming - I just didn't. I put that down to the director's talent in subtly leading me in the
opposite direction without me noticing. As an example, shortly after the terrorist attack happens, we see a passenger
plane on final approach, descending behind the big needle landmark thing, but it kinda looks like it's not going to go
behind it ... and so we're subliminally reminded of 9/11. Clever.
