Rendition
If it’s Fall, then that now means a time for provocative political thrillers. See, basically, the past two or three for further proof. And while I wouldn’t put “Tsotsi” director Gavin Hood’s entry in the genre with the recent past’s best, its’ subject matter certainly deserves to be at the forefront of discussion in the recent political landscape, and the film is strong enough to put it there.
The title refers to “Extraordinary Rendition,” a practice- adopted, unfortunately, by the Clinton administration- that took on a new meaning post-9/11 where suspected terrorists are detained outside of the United States, freeing up our government- in their mind, at least- to use torture as a means of extracting information about possible terrorist attacks and known terrorists. Of course, while the current administration has credited such tactics for stopping several potential attacks and learning important information (all the while touting that the United States does not torture), the obvious moral questions behind such practices exist. However, “Rendition” offers another intriguing question against torture- if torture is used against someone who is thought to be a terrorist but isn’t one, won’t there come a point when the tortured will say anything you want just to make the torture stop? At one point in the film, a character quotes Shakespeare, who said something along the same lines in his day.
“Rendition” looks at this terrifying subject from several perspectives, as Anwar, an Egyptian-American chemical engineer (Omar Metwally, with the toughest role in the film) is returning home from a conference in South Africa only to be captured by US Intelligence officers after landing in Washington D.C. and taken away, with any trace of him being wiped off of the flight’s records. He’s being questioned as a possible accomplice of a known terrorist whose group has taken responsibility for an early morning attack in Africa, a suicide bombing that was intended to kill known torturer Abasi, who takes the job seriously, is intelligent and a loving family man, and will eventually come into play as a major player in the film’s events, not just as Anwar’s torturer- supervised by Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal, who keeps getting better and better, and compliments his work in “Zodiac” brilliantly here), who has no experience in the field of torture observation (his superior, who usually handles such things, was killed in the blast), and doesn’t handle it well- but also in terms of his family.
Meanwhile, Anwar’s family back in Chicago is worried. His wife Isabella (Reese Witherspoon, effective in the role but not given much to work with in terms of range)- about ready to have their second child- makes her way down to Washington- leaving Anwar’s mother to look after their young son, who’s anxious to get the present his father promised him- to investigate further how Anwar could get on in South Africa (according to their records) but not get off in Washington; a credit card bill provides evidence he was on the flight. She enlists the help of a good friend from college who knows both her and Anwar (the superb Peter Sarsgaard) who is the assistant to a powerful Senator (Alan Arkin). So long as the evidence slides their way, the Senator has no problem looking into it with the CIA’s head of Intelligence (a bitchy, ice cold Meryl Streep, who can chill your blood with her neocon rhetoric). But when the evidence swings the other way, not even Sarsgaard is willing to play hardball on the matter, leaving Isabella alone both in her fight to get her husband back but also, seemingly left to raise their children alone.
Watching “Rendition,” I was reminded of last year’s excellent “Babel,” not that the two share specific themes but in how the film links several people from different places and cultures around a singular event- in this case, a terrorist attack. In that way, the film- without calling attention to it- is what has been labeled a “hyperlink film,” the subgenre which movies like “Babel” are included in. There’s one more plot strand- involving Abasi’s estranged daughter, in love with a young man the family doesn’t approve of- that I haven’t mentioned, but is important to the plot in ways I’ll allow the film (intelligently written by Kelley Sane) reveal. Like the best political thrillers, “Rendition” is a film that explores its’ subject from all angles. My main issue with it is only that many of its’ characters are written with only one-dimension to them, and in all honesty, the ending is a little too pat in wrapping things up. That seems to be enough, though; the film still has an impact which comes with any movie that reveals harsh truths, and the worst of human nature.
