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RENDITION Send This Review to a Friend
The drama “Rendition,” directed by Gavin Hood from a screenplay by Kelley Shane and unveiled at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, goes to the heart of the Bush Administration policy of seizing terror suspects and sending them to places where they can be tortured, thus sidestepping accusations that American has descended into using torture by acquiring stand-ins.
“Rendition” exposes the hypocrisy in a style that borders on a traditional Hollywood approach. Omar Metwally portrays Anwar El-Ibrahimi, an Egyptian-American who is mysteriously seized and sent to a detention center in the Middle East. His sudden disappearance in the midst of traveling home from a business trip perplexes his increasingly desperate wife, Isabella, played compellingly by Reese Witherspoon.
After a suicide bomb kills an important CIA officer, his coworker Douglas Freeman, portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal in another effective performance, takes over for him and is ordered to oversee the interrogation of the secretly held El-Ibrahimi. Freeman gets an education as to torture methods, which go against his beliefs. Convinced that the wrong man is being held, he is confronted with what to do about the situation.
Back in the United States, Isabella sets out to find what has happened to her husband, but is frustrated by the CIA cover-up and the reluctance of an old friend and her senator to get involved when realizing how high up secrecy is guarded. Meryl Streep turns in a tough, nasty performance as the government bitch in control and determined not to let anything stand in way of interrogation by torture.
There is tension and excitement in how all is resolved, and in the process we are dramatically escorted into the results of a policy that abandons the constitutional safeguards that are supposed to exist in the United States. The film in its way strikes a blow against one aspect of what has happened as a result of America’s war in Iraq and the so-called fight against terror.
However, the film is somewhat cluttered by a parallel story involving the daughter of the chief Egyptian torturer and her forbidden love affair with a militant, although it is tied to an explanation of key events that have occurred. But that back story also illuminates conditions involving the repression of women. On balance, “Rendition” emerges as a strong film that impresses both artistically and politically. A New Line Cinema release.
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