Isabella (Witherspoon) is supposed to meet his husband, Egyptian-born Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), who is supposed to return from a conference in South Africa to the US. When he doesn't show up at the airport, she is told that her husband has never boarded the plane. She tries to track him down, and learns that his husband is a terrorist suspect linked to a suicide bombing that occurred recently in an unnamed North African country.
Meanwhile, CIA analyst Doug Freeman (Gyllenhaal) becomes a witness, albeit reluctantly, to the torture of Ibrahimi, who firmly maintains his innocence despite the glaring evidence stating otherwise. Freeman believes him, but his superiors don't.
At first glance, "Rendition" seems like THE political thriller of the season, what with a cast that boasts of Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep and Alan Arkin, among others; and a director in Gavin Hood, the same guy who helmed the Academy Award-winning "Tsotsi." And to some extent, the film is kept alive by the engaging performances of the actors involved plus Hood's ability to rack up the tension. But ultimately, the film contents itself on remaining uncomfortably simplifying things up - where black is black, and white is white - wasting a potentially more intelligent treatment of the theme.
If only for the performance and the visual mastery of the film, "Rendition" earns points. But it doesn't get over the fact that what it rams down the throat of the viewers isn't exactly what it is. For the film, there's either the good and the evil. Yet the truth, as always, lies somewhere in between.
Meanwhile, CIA analyst Doug Freeman (Gyllenhaal) becomes a witness, albeit reluctantly, to the torture of Ibrahimi, who firmly maintains his innocence despite the glaring evidence stating otherwise. Freeman believes him, but his superiors don't.
At first glance, "Rendition" seems like THE political thriller of the season, what with a cast that boasts of Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep and Alan Arkin, among others; and a director in Gavin Hood, the same guy who helmed the Academy Award-winning "Tsotsi." And to some extent, the film is kept alive by the engaging performances of the actors involved plus Hood's ability to rack up the tension. But ultimately, the film contents itself on remaining uncomfortably simplifying things up - where black is black, and white is white - wasting a potentially more intelligent treatment of the theme.
If only for the performance and the visual mastery of the film, "Rendition" earns points. But it doesn't get over the fact that what it rams down the throat of the viewers isn't exactly what it is. For the film, there's either the good and the evil. Yet the truth, as always, lies somewhere in between.