Rendition
Good intentions don
Rendition
Directed by Gavin Hood (R)
A foreign government kidnaps and tortures an American suspected of terrorism.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
??
Good intentions don’t always make for a good movie, said A.O. Scott in The New York Times. Although “well-meaning and honorable,” Rendition can be tossed atop Hollywood’s growing pile of topical wartime dramas. The issue here is a policy known as “extraordinary rendition,” which was created by Clinton but has been practiced more often by Bush. Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), suspected of terrorism, is extradited to an anonymous country. There he’s tortured for information, while his pregnant wife (Reese Witherspoon) races to save him. Director Gavin Hood has an honest and serious goal with Rendition, and he succeeds at using “mainstream moviemaking to get viewers thinking about a moral crisis that many of us would prefer to ignore.” No one would suggest such issues aren’t important, said David Ansen in Newsweek. Hood “raises all the right questions about the government’s use of the War on Terror to trash the Constitution and trample on individual liberties.” But despite good intentions and a cast that includes Meryl Streep and Peter Sarsgaard, Rendition is too much of a complicated mess to make any real difference. The film’s “intricate, map-like structure” will alienate viewers who want a sense of the larger issues, said Stephanie Zacharek in Salon.com. It’s just another political film that raises awareness but chooses not “to make sense out of madness.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
India elections start amid violence, hate speech accusations
Talking Points Narendra Modi seeks a third term while critics worry about the future of the country's democracy
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
'Biden is smart to keep the border-security pressure on'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Bird flu worries mount as virus found in milk, cows
Speed Read The FDA found traces of the virus in pasteurized grocery store milk
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published