Sweeping political epics are a tough nut to crack. There's really no little mistakes when it comes to films aiming to make powerful political and social comments about life on an international scale. There are simply films that effectively deliver their message and then there are those other ones, the ones that come up short. A thriller can be mediocre, but when you're tackling world crises it really leaves no room for foul ups. And sadly Rendition has more than a few foibles. It's not likely to incite anything nearing intense debate on the issue of extraordinary rendition, the interrogation tactic which it explores. It's not likely to satisfy the lowest common denominator thriller fan either. It's simply an admirable, sometimes engaging, big miss from director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi). Rendition is essentially this: in extreme cases of national security suspects can be picked up and transported from American soil to foreign prisons where tactics for extracting information tend to lean toward the more gruesome side of things. American agents "observe" the investigation by a foreign staff, relinquishing them, and the nation, of liability for the torture of these suspects. All rights are immediately suspended and those in custody have no recourse but to endure torture or confess to something.Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) experiences extraordinary rendition firsthand on his way home to his family in Chicago one day. Rookie CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) is sent to observe El-Ibrahimi's interrogation after an suicide bomber kills his more experienced partner, leaving him the only qualified party in the immediate vacinity. His lack of familiarity with the intensity of the process leads him to but heads with the lead interrogater, Abasi Fawal, (Yigal Naor) and he slowly begins to question the assignment more and more. Reese Witherspoon also stars as El-Ibrahimi's pregnant wife whose life comes crashing down when she realizes that her husband's disappearance is connected to a serious government investigation that expresses no concern for his well-being or the welfare of their family. She reaches out to a friend at a local Senator's office (Peter Sarsgaard) who makes fruitless efforts to shatter the defences of Corrine Whitman, (Meryl Streep) who is overseeing the mission.
There's also an embarrassingly convoluted subplot involving Fawal's rebellious young daughter that could (and perhaps should) have been a separate film. It latches on to the primary narrative like an obnoxious tangent that the storyteller just can't stop going back to. Moreover, it hinges on an elaborate shift in perspective that does nothing but bury the film in overly complex questions of time and space when really it needs to be assessing its dramatic and thematic dilemmas. Ponderous is the nicest word to give to this. It's muddled, elaborate in an annoying sort of way, and entirely ineffectual in its depictions of some of the worlds darkest truths. Any film that can feature terror in such a convoluted light that it lacks emotional power is in serious need of some tinkering. The good news is that the cast delivers a collection of performances equal to their A-list, Oscar caliber reputations. It's a shame that none of them is serviced better by the film. Too often characters vanish from screen for extended periods of time or get wasted on redundant scenes of little importance. When the camera is on Streep and her Washington power players it's off of Witherspoon and her family drama and when it's on Gyllenhaal's moral quandry it's once again left the rest of the story in the lurch. Maybe if the movie had concentrated on one specific element of this complex story it could have delivered a firmly constructed thriller of some power. As it is, it's a jumble of emotion, action, and head scratching.
Grade: C+
