Rendition is one scary movie. It's scary because I believe what happened to the central character can happen to anyone.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays CIA analyst Douglas Freeman. While in North Africa, a suicide bomber strikes, killing 19 people instead of the person the bomb was intended to kill, an interrogator named Abasi.
Though Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) is a successful chemical engineer living in Chicago with his wife and son, he is detained when he tries to leave for the U.S. after a conference. It turns out that there are telephone records that show a terrorist, Rashid, called his cell phone. Anwar doesn't know anything about it.
Anwar is taken to a detention center. His pregnant wife (Reese Witherspoon) doesn't know what happened to him. She calls on a friend of hers in government, but ultimately, he is stonewalled and his boss orders him to let it go.
Freeman is asked to observe the interrogation of Anwar by Abasi. Anwar is tortured, but still doesn't know anything. Ultimately he talks -- he gives the names of men on a soccer team as his accomplices in bomb-making and says he was paid $40,000 by Rashid. Freeman realizes that it's a fake confession. But what can he do to help him? There is a parallel story, of Abasi's daughter Fatima who has left home with her boyfriend Khalid. She doesn't know that he is a terrorist and that Abasi is responsible for the death of his brother.
The question is asked - is it ever right to torture? Will it only serve to elicit false confessions? And Freeman asks what useful intelligence has ever come out of these interrogations. Meanwhile, back home, even though the United States doesn't torture people, it instead lets other people torture American citizens.
Meryl Streep has a supporting role, and she does a good job as a cold bitch. I thought Reese Witherspoon was terrific in a very emotional role, and the rest of the acting was solid. Some of the scenes were too graphic for me to watch.
I think one of the reviews on here says it all. It's from an Egyptian man now living in the U.S. who was detained. What happened in this film could easily have happened to him. And it could happen to anyone with the wrong last name.
I know Homeland Security was set up to protect us, and it's a good thing to have the various governmental organizations communicating with one another. And it seems to me that they've stopped quite a few attacks. However, the flip side is that now the police or anyone in authority can accuse you of terrorism just because they don't like you. I had a brush with it myself, so I know of what I speak.
It's not a great film, but it made its point.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays CIA analyst Douglas Freeman. While in North Africa, a suicide bomber strikes, killing 19 people instead of the person the bomb was intended to kill, an interrogator named Abasi.
Though Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) is a successful chemical engineer living in Chicago with his wife and son, he is detained when he tries to leave for the U.S. after a conference. It turns out that there are telephone records that show a terrorist, Rashid, called his cell phone. Anwar doesn't know anything about it.
Anwar is taken to a detention center. His pregnant wife (Reese Witherspoon) doesn't know what happened to him. She calls on a friend of hers in government, but ultimately, he is stonewalled and his boss orders him to let it go.
Freeman is asked to observe the interrogation of Anwar by Abasi. Anwar is tortured, but still doesn't know anything. Ultimately he talks -- he gives the names of men on a soccer team as his accomplices in bomb-making and says he was paid $40,000 by Rashid. Freeman realizes that it's a fake confession. But what can he do to help him? There is a parallel story, of Abasi's daughter Fatima who has left home with her boyfriend Khalid. She doesn't know that he is a terrorist and that Abasi is responsible for the death of his brother.
The question is asked - is it ever right to torture? Will it only serve to elicit false confessions? And Freeman asks what useful intelligence has ever come out of these interrogations. Meanwhile, back home, even though the United States doesn't torture people, it instead lets other people torture American citizens.
Meryl Streep has a supporting role, and she does a good job as a cold bitch. I thought Reese Witherspoon was terrific in a very emotional role, and the rest of the acting was solid. Some of the scenes were too graphic for me to watch.
I think one of the reviews on here says it all. It's from an Egyptian man now living in the U.S. who was detained. What happened in this film could easily have happened to him. And it could happen to anyone with the wrong last name.
I know Homeland Security was set up to protect us, and it's a good thing to have the various governmental organizations communicating with one another. And it seems to me that they've stopped quite a few attacks. However, the flip side is that now the police or anyone in authority can accuse you of terrorism just because they don't like you. I had a brush with it myself, so I know of what I speak.
It's not a great film, but it made its point.