Rendition - Film Review

Visiting key themes of the war on terror, whether it be the genuine methods exploited by the CIA depicted, or the view taken on torture or the morality of 'intelligence gathering', Gavin Hood's drama-thriller takes a slice of real life, adds a ficticious twist, to deliver a film that is one part 'What if?' the other intelluctual pondering.

Egyptian national Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Wetwally) has been an American citizen for almost twenty years, is a succesful businessman, and has a young family, married to educated Isabella (Reese Witherspoon) and with one son and another child on the way.

But following a suicide bombing in an unnamed North African country, El-Ibrahimi's phone number is found in the correspondence of the main suspect, and as a result he is dragged off his flight home, under the terms of 'Extraordinary Rendition', a CIA project enabling the abduction and interrogation of citizens after they are transported to other nations. As he is being tortured into providing answers, his wife fights to discover what has happened to him, with the help of old friend Alan Smith (Peter Sarsgard), who is now advisor to Senator Hawkins (Alan Arkin).

Meanwhile in the aftermath of the bombing, rookie operative Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhall) is assigned to lead up the American contribution to the investigation, at the behest of intelligence top dog Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep). In doing so he takes a passive role to local heavy Abasi Fawal (Yigar Naor), who conducts the brutal and unforgiving affair. Fawal is distracted however, as his young daughter Fatima (Zineb Oukach) has flaunted his plans of arranged marriage in favour of a romance with classmate and possible terrorist Khalid (Moa Khouas).

Taking on a series of intertwining, continent spanning stories all coming back to El-Ibrahimi, a political yarn in the style of Babel or Syriana develops, albeit one with a slighly less rigid, matter of fact tone. The characters begin to intermingle, each giving a different perspective on a situation both enduringly hard and painfully believable. Like so many recent Hollywood fare movies focussing on the middle east, and in particular the US's foreign involvement, it refuses to take much of a stance beyond pitting the two sides firmly where they fall, perhaps wisely.

But while the film may flow reasonably enough, with great care taken to balance out the various strands of story, it loses impact in various key scenes due to it's generally ambivalent tone, while its modest running time (considering its format) perhaps takes most from the arc of the characters, who more often than not feel as if they needed more time to make a suitable impact, in turn making the high calibre cast a little distracting to a degree.

As much as Reese Witherspoon may shine in a mould breaking serious role that she excels in, and Israeli actor Yigar Naor catches the eye as an ambiguous high ranker, you have other actors at the top of their game given insufficient time or material to really make the most of their talents, such as Meryl Streep (who postures and snarks, but rarely connects) and in particular Alan Arkin, who plays second fiddle to Peter Sarsgard and who inhabits a character who seems more like a means to an end. Veteran character actors JK Simmons and Bob Gunton are wasted in disposable roles.

Its compact plot, though branching, also means many events are forced and perhaps not as natural as they could be. In one scene, Witherspoon's character turns away in disgust from Sarsgard's decision to end his enquries, despite him having taken enormous career risks in helping her, which feels like a bum deal for the character and a mishandled move to remove him from proceedings. The motives of Jake Gyllenhall's Freeman are questionable at times, and a little convenient, though for what its worth he carries the part well, smoothing over the cracks so to speak.

But the biggest flaw is the Fatima and Khalid subplot, which feels like it's from a different film and lacks enough depth to give it the impact it deserves and is capable of. This feels particularly true at its conclusion, the film's only break from it's conventional style. Well acted? Sure. Poignant? Nearly. Fitting? Not at all. Its arguable that with a differing approach to the piece, it could have worked better, but as it stands it contrasts so sharply with the other two main plotlines that it becomes jarring and a flat note. Whether Kelley Sane's screenplay originally catered more to this isn't clear.

Had Rendtion been less dry and less formulaic in its approach, it could well have stood out more from the crowd and made its points more pertinent, such as the unreliable nature of torture or the general hypocrisy that operations such as Extraordinary Rendition pose. As it stands, its painfully in the grounds of mimicking better received and more successful films of a similar nature. I mentioned Syriana before because of it's highly complex and international multi-plot storytelling, which told an occasionally headache enducing tale and for the sake of plausability lost any character. Rendition seems to be torn between the two, going for an emotional punch in a linear, proto-realistic framework. While entertaining, it means it loses points from both sides and slips hopelessly into the realms of forgetable, despite its undeniable merits.

While Rendition is a film 'worth a watch', and does shed some life on a very real and very stomach turning piece of truth, it also fails to make its mind up regarding motive and intention, and is often made to suffer by its own limitations, meaning an uneven and flawed viewing experience that aims for thought provoking and comes out as distracting. Far from excellence, it still avoids any kind of harsh judgement.

6/10