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Rendition

Rendition (2007)

September. 07,2007
|
6.8
|
R
| Drama Thriller

When an Egyptian terrorism suspect "disappears" on a flight from Africa to Washington DC, his American wife and a CIA analyst find themselves caught up in a struggle to secure his release from a secret detention facility somewhere outside the US.

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UnowPriceless
2007/09/07

hyped garbage

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Pacionsbo
2007/09/08

Absolutely Fantastic

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Rosie Searle
2007/09/09

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

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Philippa
2007/09/10

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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eric262003
2007/09/11

"Rendition" is primarily about the often-uncompromising CIA ritual of extraordinary rendition based on an actual event where after a deadly suicide bombing in a tea house in North Africa, which 18 people were killed including a young CIA agent in the process. A CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) who was at the scene when his new colleague was killed. The target was aimed towards decorated police official Abasi Fawal (Yigal Naor), who's in cahoots with the Americans and assists them in preparing interrogations, and other initiatives that may seem like a necessity to the CIA but to average civilians feel more like torture. Fawal escapes without a scratch. Meanwhile, Egyptian-born Chicago resident Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) who's a chemical engineer and family man who lives with his wife who's pregnant, Isabella (Reese Witherspoon) and their son and his mother may be a possible suspect towards a dangerous organization from phone records linked towards a terrorist named Rashid who has been leaving messages on Anwar's phone.Anwar is arrested by American officials in South Africa where he was detained in a hidden facility near the scene of the bombing. There he was sentenced to severe interrogation and punishment. Freeman remains an observer towards Anwar's interrogation which Fawal is the interrogator himself. After questioning Anwar, Freeman is reluctant to believe that Anwar had anything with the bombing, but his boss, the cunning Corinne Whitman (Meryl Streep) wants the procedure to continue as a way to protect thousands from potential terrorist threats. Concerned about her husband's well-being, Isabella goes to Washington D.C. to meet an old friend Alan Smith (Peter Saragaard) who's now an aide to Senator Hawkins (Alan Arkin) and pleads him into getting more information about her abducted husband. With lots of complex twists and revelations coming along the way in this film that's quite difficult to swallow at times, we progressively get deeper into coming to conclusion if Anwar had anything to do with the North African bombing or if it was just an unfortunate case of mistaken identity. Eventually Freeman's reality check is in full gears and soon begins to believe that Anwar truly knows nothing about the suicide bombings and along with Anwar make a dramatic breakout of the prison. However, Fawal's daughter is going steady with an extremist boyfriend who has an eye-for-an-eye plot of revenge for his brother who was the victim of interrogation which led to death by Fawal. The cinematography by Dion Beebe is quite exquisite centred around the city of Marrakesh. Director Gavin Hood's agenda changes from a previous outing "Tsotsi" where he took his personal agenda with him, but in "Rendition", he takes a step back in creating a very political, more captivating human drama. Even though his film is very one-sided at times, the complexities of his movie shows that Mr. Hood is very intelligent man capable of creating such intriguing and mind-numbing narratives. Each of the narratives are handled with precaution thanks mainly to the provocative script by Kelley Sane. Even though Sane's script is rock solid, I did find that the main weakness is the lack of emotional charge within the characters and it felt like a lot could've been done, it just felt the characters had very little to work with. The performances vary from mediocre to pure devotion, but the best of the bunch comes from Igal Naor who has to choose at time from traditional government to doing what needs to be done right. We may not entirely approve of his ways but we get to understand exactly what he's going through. The title of the movie was derived from the word "extraordinary rendition" which was a term used frequently during the Clinton administration when the government abducts possible terrorists or conspirators to terrorist plots and to screw around with their civil liberties. What contrasts this movie from its closest rival Stephen Gaghan's "Syriana" is that neither the liberal or conservative cabinets garner any innocence behind their motives. But in Gavin Hood's "Rendition", has a biased perspective that the only good characters are those who oppose torture and persecution. It even goes so far as if anyone who reads about the torture and persecution of supposed innocent suspects are surely to make this world a better place. To me that's a working of pure fantasy.

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Jackson Booth-Millard
2007/09/12

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!

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Jonathan H Pienaar
2007/09/13

A very well-crafted film with a conscience. Yes, it may not have pleased the right-wingers, and if you enjoyed the torture culture portrayed in Zero Dark Thirty, then maybe you will have to examine your values after seeing this film.The role and rights of the military in a post-9/11 world are still the subject of debate -- a major plot-point in Season 2 of The Network revolved around this. When, if ever, is it right to use saran gas, or kidnap and torture, or kill innocent bystanders? To save a soldier? To save a President? To save face? This is one of the great moral debates of our era. One of Meryl Streep's best performances. She didn't touch her hair once! The direction and performances were generally all understated and subtle.Rent it, download it, watch it. Well worth the time.

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SnoopyStyle
2007/09/14

CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) barely survives a suicide terrorist attack in North Africa. Meanwhile, Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) is an Egyptian taken by the authorities in Washington airport and transported to the middle east. His pregnant wife Isabella (Reese Witherspoon) isn't notified and she seeks help from an old acquaintance Alan Smith (Peter Sarsgaard) who is an assistant to Senator Hawkins (Alan Arkin). Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep) is the boss who refuses to back down.The evidence against Anwar is several phone calls from a known terrorists. It seems that the question about the phone calls could be more easily answered with telephone records. It just seems like they didn't follow the clues correctly. It's very frustrating to be told of these phone calls, and yet there seems to be so little information about them in the movie. And the information in the movie seems so scant and unreliable. In the end, I can't tell what if anything he's done or not done.There are some big time actors in some juicy roles. The juiciest has to be Reese Witherspoon's role. She has the big time confrontation with Meryl Streep. But the Arab story is just as good with an interesting twist in the end.I just wish the phone calls evidence was more clear one way or another. Whether the audience accepts his guilt or innocence is of the utmost importance. And it needed to be settled more concretely.

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