Rendition

[Precious Doll]

Another weak review, this time for The Hollywood Reporter.

Rendition

Bottom Line: Thriller format ill serves the first feature to tackle the subject of extraordinary renditions.

By Kirk Honeycutt

Sep 7, 2007


TORONTO -- In "Rendition," a major moral and political issue confronting the American public runs up against the filmmakers' commercial agenda. There is a crying need to publicly explore the U.S. government's policy of "extraordinary renditions," the abduction of foreign nationals deemed security threats and their transportation to overseas prisons for brutal interrogations. But "Rendition" tackles the concern in a heavy-handed thriller with simplistic characters and manipulative story lines.

The film, directed by Gavin Hood in his first outing following the Oscar-winning "Tsotsi," aims for none of the moral ambiguity of Steven Spielberg's examination of Israeli anti-terrorism in "Munich." Rather he settles for a contrived melodrama, emotionally jerry-rigged to ensure audiences arrive at the proper conclusion.

The well-produced film, due for release October 19 by New Line, will attract considerable attention and commentary from non-entertainment media, so along with a solid cast of bankable young actors such as Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard and Reese Witherspoon the film should enjoy good boxoffice numbers opening week. Disappointed word-of-mouth, though, may prevent much carry over into the following weeks.


"Rendition" does little to resolve and even shed light on a program most Americans find morally repugnant but are divided on when it comes to its potential for preventing terrorist attacks. In the fictional case in question, the CIA clearly has the wrong guy from the get-go but, ratcheting up the emotional manipulation even more, the guy is an American green card holder who lives in Chicago with an American wife and child -- make that a pregnant wife -- whose only crime apparently is his Egyptian birth.

Meanwhile, the CIA head of anti-terrorism, played by Meryl Streep at her devilish worst, and the North African torturer (Igal Naor) are cartoon villains with just enough personality quirks to make them seem almost human. A thriller may have been the wrong way to go here because screenwriter Kelley Sane feels the need to up the tension and emotional ante further by playing a trick on the audience with the story's structure and sequence of events.

A suicide bomb goes off in an unnamed North African city square, claiming as one of its victims a CIA case officer. The bewildered CIA has no real leads but nevertheless snatches a U.S. resident, Egyptian-born chemical engineer Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), from the Washington, D.C. airport moments after he arrives on a flight from Cape Town, South Africa. Their only evidence is a possibly coincidental use of cell phone number.

When the CIA understandably gets no information from him at the airport, he is hooded and dragged aboard a secret flight to the very country where the bomb went off for an appointment with a talented torturer.

This is where the movie ensnares itself in a particular sticky set of connections and circumstances of scant credibility. Anwar's distraught wife (Witherspoon) just happens to have an old college friend -- more than a friend, the movie implies -- in Alan Smith (Sarsgaard), who is top deputy to her Illinois Senator (Alan Arkin), who just happens to be on a committee briefed weekly by the CIA anti-terrorist head (Streep) who ordered the rendition. So he is in prime position to learn all sorts of dirty state secrets for the wife.

Anwar's torturer (Naor) just happens to have a rebellious daughter (Zineb Oukach) who is romantically involved with an Islamic militant (Moa Khouas) who is connected to the attack. It gets better. The dead CIA case officer is temporarily replaced by an analyst, Douglas Freeman (Gyllenhaal), who is so new to this game he still has a conscience and becomes sickened over the water-boarding and electric shocks delivered to a man who has no information to surrender.

Characters make political statements and stake out fierce positions that are meant to ponder the issue of torture in the name of anti-terrorism. Yet these arguments are mostly loaded by clearly appalled, liberal-minded filmmakers.

The reality of these situations is much messier. Victims seldom if ever have friends in high places. They are not U.S. residents, nor are they always guilt free. The real questions, touched upon ever so lightly here, concern the value of any information so derived, the violation of constitutional law by outsourcing dirty work and the potential for radicalizing moderate Islamic elements through these tactics.

The film also contains an unappetizing whiff of anti-Arab sentiment. The good Arab, the film's victim, is thoroughly Westernized. But the old country Arabs are either American lackeys and therefore backward and sadistic or terrorists and therefore brainwashed fundamentalists and bigots.

The film benefits from good location work in Marrakech, Morocco, along with D.C. and Cape Town, a slick (perhaps too slick) production and a score infused with North African musical themes.

RENDITION
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema presents in association with Level 1 Entertainment an Anonymous Content Production

Director: Gavin Hood
Writer: Kelley Sane
Producers: Steve Golin, Marcus Viscidi
Executive producers: Toby Emmerich, Keith Goldberg, David Kanter, Keith Redman, Michael Sugar, Edward Milstein, Bill Todman Jr., Paul Schwake
Director of photography: Dion Beebe
Production designer: Barry Robison
Costume designer: Michael Wilkinson
Music: Paul Hepker, Mark Kilian
Editor: Megan Gill

Cast:
Douglas Freeman: Jake Gyllenhaal
Isabella El-Ibrahimi: Reese Witherspoon
Sen. Hawkins: Alan Arkin
Alan Smith: Peter Sarsgaard
Anwar El-Ibrahimi: Omar Metwally
Abasi Falwal: Igal Naor
Corrinne Whitman: Meryl Streep

No MPAA rating, running time 121 minutes

[rolotomasi99]

well, strike that one from the oscar lists. i had such high hopes for it, too.

[OscarGuy]

Sabin, that's the one comment of Ebert's I'll never forget because it was the most ridiculous. I've found I hardly ever agree with Ebert. I agreed more often with Siskel.

[Sabin]

Ebert called 'Rendition' one of two perfect movies. The other is 'No Country for Old Men'. Then again, was 'Harry Potter' the next 'Wizard of Oz'?

[Precious Doll]

If other reactions to Rendition are similar you can forget Oscar nods for this one. This one sounds like Costa-Gavras' Hannah K, not Missing or Z I'm afraid......

Rendition
Posted: Fri., Sep. 7, 2007, 5:00pm PT


A New Line Cinema release presented in association with Level 1 Entertainment of an Anonymous Content production. Produced by Steve Golin, Marcus Viscidi. Executive producers, Toby Emmerich, Keith Goldberg, David Kanter, Keith Redman, Michael Sugar, Edward Milstein, Bill Todman Jr., Paul Schwake. Co-producer, Mark Martin. Directed by Gavin Hood. Screenplay, Kelley Sane.

Douglas Freeman - Jake Gyllenhaal
Isabella El-Ibrahimi - Reese Witherspoon
Senator Hawkins - Alan Arkin
Alan Smith - Peter Sarsgaard
Anwar El-Ibrahimi - Omar Metwally
Abasi Fawal - Igal Naor
Khalid - Moa Khouas
Fatima - Zineb Oukach
Corrinne Whitman - Meryl Streep


By TODD MCCARTHY
It's not easy to make a dull film when your central components include terrorism, torture, secret CIA operations and contempo Middle East intrigue, but Gavin Hood has done it with "Rendition." By underplaying the melodrama in the presumed hope of seeming subtle when Kelley Sane's script is so baldly melodramatic, the "Tsotsi" helmer drains the life out of an obviously explosive subject. Despite the starry cast, this middlebrow stab at political relevance won't muster more than fair B.O. upon Oct. 19 Stateside release.
Title refers to the U.S.'s policy (introduced by the Clinton administration, one line of dialogue points out) of "extraordinary rendition," by which suspected terrorists can be moved to other countries to be tortured without legal restraints or ramifications.

Which is what happens to Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), the good looking, Egyptian-born, American educated and accented husband of blond soccer mom Isabella (Reese Witherspoon) on his return to Chicago from a business trip in Africa.

Anwar's state-sponsored abduction is triggered by a suicide bombing in an unnamed North African country, which kills a top CIA case officer. Stepping into the breach is young analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal), who soon finds himself observing the well-practiced torture techniques (water-soaked hoods, electrodes, good old-fashioned hitting) of past master Abasi (Igal Naor), the local top cop for this sort of thing.

The CIA's sliver of evidence against Anwar is records of a few cell phone calls to him from someone who may only coincidentally have the same name as a known terrorist. But that's enough for the CIA's terrorism guru (Meryl Streep, brandishing a slight Southern accent and too-obvious negative commentary about her nasty character) to have Anwar "put on a plane" and officially become a missing person.

Concerned, the very pregnant Isabella heads to Washington, D.C., and uses an old college flame (Peter Sarsgaard), who now works for a senator (Alan Arkin), to try to get to the bottom of her husband's whereabouts.

Balancing this out is a surreptitious romance between Abasi's lovely daughter Fatima (Zineb Oukach) and Khalid (Moa Khouas), whose brother leads a local radical Islamic group Abasi is trying to break.

Given that he has no expertise to bring to the table and is strictly an observer until very near the end, Freeman is an exceptionally dreary fellow, and Gyllenhaal does nothing to give him any quirks or wrinkles; all he does is represent "conscience" in the most opaque, low-key way.

Even Witherspoon, normally the most spirited of performers who can inject even limited characters and blah scripts with her own spark, can do little but mope around and search for different ways to look worried. A limited acting exercise, to say the least.

Thesps playing the Arab characters have a little more juice in them, most prominently Metwally, who deserves some points for spending a good deal of the running time suffering abuse while constrained nude on a chair in a dungeon, and Naor, who actually gets to show more than just the vicious side of a stock character due to his tough cop character's domestic turmoil.

Locations skip around a lot and Hood's direction provides scant fluidity to knit them together. Physical aspect of the production is OK, although one hopes that there is more verisimilitude to the North African scenes (shot in Morocco) than there is for the Chicago section; the block on which the Witherspoon character lives was quite clearly lensed in California, as it looks absolutely nothing like any street in Illinois.

Camera (Deluxe color, Panavision widescreen), Dion Beebe; editor, Megan Gill; music, Paul Hepker, Mark Kilian; production designer, Barry Robison; costume designer, Michael Wilkinson; sound (SDDS/Dolby Digital/DTS), Nico Louw; supervising sound editor, Kelly Cabral; visual effects and animation, Digital Dimension; stunt coordinator, Cedric Proust; assistant director, Peter Kohn; casting, Francine Maisler, Kate Dowd, Kathleen Driscoll-Mohler. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Gala), Sept. 7, 2007. Running time: 122 MIN.