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Gavin Hood, Rendition

by Chris Flippo
10/21/2007

Remember how upset I was about The Kingdom a couple of weeks ago? (Wait for response). Oh, its okay, I know you don’t. I forgot about The Kingdom, too. But I said in my review that it was “shallow and insensitive film making.” Now, just three weeks later, we are given Rendition, one of the better films that have been made about living in a post-9/11 world. In it we have the film that The Kingdom should have been.

Traveling home, Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) is arrested and held captive by the U.S. government for suspected involvement with a terrorist organization. Soon, the interrogation devolves into torture, and the young analyst (Jake Gyllenhaal) assigned to the case begins to question the methods. Meanwhile, Anwar’s pregnant wife, Isabelle (Reese Witherspoon), begins an investigation of her own in an attempt to track down her husband.

Like Babel, this is a film that interweaves multiple narratives, all of them connected by Anwar’s situation. Though the story unfolds over several countries, director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) handles the juggling of the narratives with grace. No one story overpowers the others, and Hood gives plenty of screen time to actors who are not household names. It's good to see actors serving the story instead of the other way around.

Rendition is not an enjoyable film, but it is one I am glad to have seen. It does not make for a great Friday night at the movies, but, then again, it shouldn’t. Films like this should be painful, and they should sting a little bit. Some movies work because they make the audience feel good after seeing them; some films shouldn’t try. We should walk out feeling drained.

However, much of this story’s power should be attributed to the actors. Gyllenhaal and Witherspoon are solid as usual, and Peter Sarsgaard continues to impress in supporting roles. Also, Omar Metwally turns in a great performance as Anwar. Without the right actor in that role, the entire project would have been doomed from the start.

Rendition is not a perfect film. Hood uses a twist involving the time line that doesn’t quite work. The film might have been better served had we been presented with this information from the beginning. Also, Meryl Streep should have been given a little more screen time in order to flesh out her character. Rendition makes her into the villain, but I would like to have seen a few more dimensions to her.

However, despite a few missteps, Rendition is a good film. Many have attacked it as left-wing propaganda, but those who have said that probably don’t understand the meaning of the word. I hate to think we are living in a world where movies shouldn’t express the opinions of their creators. To be frank, if Rendition didn’t piss a few people off, then it wouldn’t be tackling the issue at hand. I recommend the film because Hood avoids looking at the issues with an “us versus them” mentality, and that’s commendable. It’s really about us versus ourselves.

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