CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) barely survives a suicide terrorist attack in North Africa. Meanwhile, Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) is an Egyptian taken by the authorities in Washington airport and transported to the middle east. His pregnant wife Isabella (Reese Witherspoon) isn't notified and she seeks help from an old acquaintance Alan Smith (Peter Sarsgaard) who is an assistant to Senator Hawkins (Alan Arkin). Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep) is the boss who refuses to back down.
The evidence against Anwar is several phone calls from a known terrorists. It seems that the question about the phone calls could be more easily answered with telephone records. It just seems like they didn't follow the clues correctly. It's very frustrating to be told of these phone calls, and yet there seems to be so little information about them in the movie. And the information in the movie seems so scant and unreliable. In the end, I can't tell what if anything he's done or not done.
There are some big time actors in some juicy roles. The juiciest has to be Reese Witherspoon's role. She has the big time confrontation with Meryl Streep. But the Arab story is just as good with an interesting twist in the end.
I just wish the phone calls evidence was more clear one way or another. Whether the audience accepts his guilt or innocence is of the utmost importance. And it needed to be settled more concretely.
The evidence against Anwar is several phone calls from a known terrorists. It seems that the question about the phone calls could be more easily answered with telephone records. It just seems like they didn't follow the clues correctly. It's very frustrating to be told of these phone calls, and yet there seems to be so little information about them in the movie. And the information in the movie seems so scant and unreliable. In the end, I can't tell what if anything he's done or not done.
There are some big time actors in some juicy roles. The juiciest has to be Reese Witherspoon's role. She has the big time confrontation with Meryl Streep. But the Arab story is just as good with an interesting twist in the end.
I just wish the phone calls evidence was more clear one way or another. Whether the audience accepts his guilt or innocence is of the utmost importance. And it needed to be settled more concretely.