'Rendition' takes kid-glove approach to terror, torture

Acting in the movie packs as little punch as the film's interrogation methods.

By Steve Persall, Times film critic
Published October 18, 2007

Review
Rendition
Grade: C+
Director: Gavin Hood
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Igal Naor, Omar Metwally, J.K. Simmons, Zineb Oukach, Moa Khouas
Screenplay: Kelley Sane
Rating: R; torture, violence, profanity
Running time: 122 min.

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The crucial question looming over Rendition doesn't concern torture.

The real issue is how the heck did Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon become an item while working in separate parts of the world? "Gyllenspoon" never share a scene, set or supporting actor.

Rendition is an international jigsaw puzzle, like Babel, only with big pieces.

Excuse me for not taking Rendition as seriously as director Gavin Hood mistakenly does. This isn't a ripped-from-the-headlines drama of due process denied to terrorism suspects. It's more like cutting-and-pasting by a hysterical blogger skimming the daily news.

Rendition is timid, which is one thing a movie about the terrorism era can't afford to be. It is a movie in which shell-shocked CIA agent Douglas Freeman (Gyllenhaal) sees a prisoner slapped once and starts doubting torture as a trustworthy interrogation practice. Then he chokes the suspect for a few seconds without gain, and he's convinced.

Something must be done to stop this.

The suspect's wife, Isabella Fields El-Ibrahimi (Witherspoon), could have told him that, if they ever crossed paths. She's pregnant and expecting her husband, Anwar (Omar Metwally), to arrive home from a business trip to South Africa. "Izzy," as she's called, doesn't know Anwar was intercepted by U.S. agents investigating a suicide bombing that killed an American.

Douglas was dazed by that explosion but is assigned to oversee Anwar's transit to a secret prison in Africa, and his interrogation by a no-nonsense Arab named Abasi Fawal (Igal Naor).

Izzy is busy in Washington D.C., asking an old flame (Peter Sarsgard) for assistance, since he works for a U.S. senator (Alan Arkin). Neither wants to tangle with CIA terrorism queen Corrinne Whitman (Meryl Streep), who thinks the only good suspect is a beaten one.

Any cast with three Academy Award winners, another nominee (Gyllenhaal) and one who will be (Sarsgard) is worth savoring. Hood's globe-trotting scheme and Kelley Sane's script rarely offer the chance.

Worse, they never take a side in a hot-button issue, making torture seem tamer than reported, and government explanations sound almost rational.

More detail is given to Abasi's runaway daughter (Zineb Oukach) canoodling with a budding suicide bomber (Moa Khouas). That nonmarketable, subtitled subplot eventually pulls everything together, while famous American actors make their cases for plausible deniability.

Steve Persall can be reached at (727) 893-8365 or Persall@sptimes.com. Read his blog at blogs.tampabay.com/movies.

[Last modified October 16, 2007, 18:07:26]