Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Rendition was an eye-opening movie for me, as it brought to light a very real situation going on in the world, today.  A situation I sort of knew about, but never spent much time thinking about.  I'm referring to "extreme rendition", the post-9/11 policy that allows suspected terrorists to be extradited to foreign soil for interrogation. And by "interrogation", I really mean "torture", but of course it's never referred to by that term.  It all sounds just fine on paper, if you think the people being interrogated in this fashion are, indeed, guilty.  After all, the point is to save thousands of lives from senseless acts of terror.  But what if the person being interrogated is innocent.  Is this policy still "acceptable" in that case?

That's the main story being examined in Gavin Hood's Rendition.  Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) is an Egyptian-born chemist living in the US for the past twenty years. He has a wife (Reese Witherspoon), a young son, and a baby on the way.  Returning from a business trip to Africa, he is met at the airport and detained.  His travel records are erased, his luggage confiscated.  He's brought back to Africa, and interrogation begins.  It seems there's a smidgeon of evidence that makes it seem like he helped terrorists achieve a huge bombing that took place in Africa just a few days ago.  I say "smidgeon" of evidence, because that's really all it is.

Meanwhile, his wife and son are at the airport in Washington DC to pick him up.  Imagine her fear when he doesn't show up, and there's no record of him having boarded the plane.  She turns to a friend of hers, with pretty high contacts, for help.

The main interrogator Abasi Fawal (Yigal Naor) is juggling two different roles. His job is to beat the truth out of Anwar, using pretty much any means he wants.  Yet he's also a father, who's worried about his daughter who has run off.  We, the viewers, know exactly where the daughter is.  She's with her boyfriend Khalid (Moa Khouas).  She sees Khalid as a sensitive artist; we know otherwise as we watch him attend extremist workshops.

We watch these stories unfold, knowing they will come together at some point, but not knowing exactly how until the very end.  I found it suspenseful and exciting, waiting to see exactly how the stories would intertwine.  The stories are intense, and the emotions of the characters raw.  I was particularly impressed with Metwally's portrayal of Ibrahimi.  You can feel his terror, his humiliation, his pain.  Although you really don't know anything for sure, you're led to absolutely believe he is innocent.  Thus we cringe with each new torture, and we understand the step he ultimately takes in order to make the torture stop.  Some of these scenes are very difficult to watch - as I'm sure you can imagine.

Jake Gyllenhaal plays Douglas Freeman, the unwitting CIA liaison to the torture.  He didn't ask for this role, but he finds himself forced into it.  Here we get to see a man truly torn.  His government is demanding he do his job, but his heart isn't in it.  Normally I like Gyllenhaal, but in this case, I thought the portrayal was rather bland.  It didn't help that his character was not well-developed at all.  We know practically nothing about him, or his background. 

In a very important, but way too small role, Meryl Streep plays the head of the rendition program.  She's a woman who truly believes her way is the right way.  She boldly claims that the US does NOT torture people, they merely interrogate.  And she just as boldly looks right into Reese Witherspoon's teary eyes and denies any knowledge of her husband's fate.  I just wish we could have seen more of her; she plays the part to perfection.

I wasn't blown away by Reese Witherspoon's portrayal.  She was going through all of the motions, and emotions, that any woman would, in her situation. But somehow, she just didn't touch my heart.  Her scenes should have brought tears to my eyes, and pain to my heart, but instead I just sort of yawned.  Sorry, Reese, you just didn't do it for me in this movie.

Still, this is a powerful movie, visually appealing, with the right amount of attention given to each of its subplots.  There are a lot of subtitles as there are many scenes spoken in Arabic, so make sure you bring your reading glasses.  See it when you're in the mood to tackle a very serious issue, that's actually happening in the world, today.

Recommended: Yes