Rendition (2007)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I don't get why anyone would like this. The deep flaws in the film-making could not be overlooked by me, at all, to care about the topic at hand. Do not like the structure of multiple apparently-unrelated stories, and (without giving away spoilers) one key one was a long slog to find how it ties in. In a way that doesn't really help with the overall message of the film and was so poorly done some reviewers didn't even /notice/ it. I found it inconsistent. Some trying to be really filmic and lovely, but a lot of NBC Prime Time TV level photography and staging also. Acting is mostly awful, and casting is mismatched. JK Simmons is awesome, but he always is. Many others felt like the second table read instead. But, that may be partly as the roles are written oddly. I never bought Gyllenhaal's character at all, and his acting was less torn than disaffected. Meryl Streep was arch, and nothing else. Omar Metwally was never really believable when he's one of the people we needed to latch onto as he's the one the horrible things are happening to. I guess having Reese Witherspoon as the wife is supposed to be our other Western anchor, but she acts like a Lifetime Movie wife. Too supervillainy. Not a political statement that it paints the US in a bad light, but that very, very high up people personally handle individual cases, and skip the chain of command to micromanage while wearing their all white suits or ballgowns.

Hollywood hired a few good actors (including Meryl Streep, known for her political positioning and agenda) hoping to attract viewers to a propaganda movie against torture procedures used by USA (waterboarding etc). It could have been a good propaganda movie but unfortunately for them the movie is bad so it made less money than it has cost Hollywood to make it. Probably they will make a few Deadpool movies to cover the loses. It is a boring movie with a bad script, bad directing and not worth the time to watch it even if you don't pay for it.

Rendition (2007) is a very well acted, written, and filmed movie. Meryl Streep, Jake Gylanhaal, Alan Arkin, and Reese Witherspoon all give very deep, meaningful performances. The movie covers 2/3 different story lines with different characters, they all work together in the end to make sense. All the story lines are acted out and told well. The interrogation scenes were done very tastefully, I really didn't want them to be gratuitously violent or overly disturbing, like more than was necessary. I really liked the pace of the film too, not too slow at all for me, and the runtime is right at two hours. The actors interact well together too, whether it be a good or bad relationship or exchange between the characters. There are moments in the film that will really anger you because of what is happening to Reese's husband, like I mentioned before, the scenes of interrogation/torture are not graphically violent, but you see them using various techniques to attempt to retrieve answers. And the sad part is that the entire reason he's there is due to poor intelligence. I'd suggest this movie for the acting alone, and it's so good (to me at least) to see actor like Streep being so tough as nails and having scenes with her fellow cast members where the tension is raised high. I love seeing scenes like because it showcases the cast's true talent and acting ability. Overall it's a pretty good, well made film. I suggest it. 8/10.

From director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, X-Men Origins: Wolverine), I knew a couple of the lead stars of this film, and I knew it was something to do with terrorism, I was just looking forward to giving it a go. Basically in a square in North Africa, a suicide bomber attacks and kills eighteen people, including the boss of CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) who was also there, interrogator and torturer Abasi Fawal (Igal Naor) was the target, but he escaped unharmed. Egyptian born chemical engineer Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), his wife is Isabella Fields El-Ibrahimi (Reese Witherspoon), they live together in Chicago with their young son, he has been recently in contact or involved with a violent organisation and known terrorist Rashid Salimi (Omar Salim). Returning from South Africa to the United States, Anwar is detained by officials and held in a detention facility near the site of the attack, Isabella is not informed of this, and despite being pregnant she travels to Washington to piece together what is going on, but she is only held back by security and is emotional getting no answers. Freeman is assigned to observe the interrogation of Anwar by Abasi Fawal, despite his own questions and torturing where he concludes Anwar is innocent, his boss insists it continues, justifying it is necessary to save thousands of potential terrorism victims, but it is obvious Freeman has his conscience playing with him as he watches the torture continue. Eventually Anwar does break and confess what he knows, he advised terrorists on how to create a bomb and was promised $40,000 for doing so, but Freeman thinks this confession is false, and he confirms this searching names on Google, they are the names of Egyptian football players, he also doubts that the man would take £40,000 and risk losing his family when his job earns him $200,000. Freeman orders the release of Anwar, without the permission of his superiors, and lets him escape, getting on a ship to Spain, he does eventually reach the U.S. and returns to his family, while the CIA analyst releases the details of the detaining to the American press, this story is read by the person who ordered this rendition, Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep). But the story switches the reveal that the interrogation and torture all happened before th attack seen earlier, Abasi's daughter Fatima (Zineb Oukach) ran away from home with her boyfriend Khalid El-Emin (Moa Khouas), unknown to her, he is a terrorist, he is the one who was the suicide bomber. Fatima finds out from photographs that her father tortured and killed Khalid's brother, and she finds out her boyfriend's plan, she turned up at the square to stop him attacking, but he is killed by the organisers, therefore forcing him to let go of the detonator and forcing the explosion, killing Fatima with him. Also starring Alan Arkin as Senator Hawkins, Peter Sarsgaard as Alan Smith, Spider-Man's J.K. Simmons as Lee Mayer and Bob Gunton as Lars Whitman. Gyllenhaal is fine as the man battling with his morals, Witherspoon with her slightly short time on screen does great as the emotionally concerned pregnant wife, and Streep I agree despite being good at playing the cold-hearted superior is a little pantomime villain. I could just about follow what was going on, there is a relatively good twist having the attack happen after the events you see, when you assume it was before, and besides the bombing sequence the most prolific moments are during the interrogations, it is a little cluttered with characters and plot, but a good enough political thriller. Worth watching!