Review of Rendition (2007) by Deborah A — 31 Aug 2009

Rendition is rivetting, suspenseful, maddening. The plot skillfully weaves together two stories with the same thread - eloquently presenting a powerful message that violence begets violence. The title refers to a policy which allows US authorities to detain terrorist suspects in locations outside of US jurisdiction.

The story begins when a suicide bomber misses his intended target, Abasi Fawal, the head of the Egyptian Secret Police (Yigal Naor). His job is to get information from the suspect, an American citizen (Omar Metwally), by whatever means necessary while CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) observes.

Meanwhile Fawal's daughter, Fatima, is missing. Did she run away with Khalid, her boyfriend from school? As an idealist and frustrated painter, Khalid is a sympathetic character - until you remember that the young Hitler was an idealist and artist too.

Merryl Streep is the epitome of icy conservativism, as she coldy allows the torture of the captured US citizen, despite objection from his tearful, pregnant wife (Reese Witherspoon) and her Senator friend (Peter Sarsgaard) who apparently has less backbone than his secretary.

Fans of due process will cringe while supporters of extreme interrogation techniques, such as water-boarding, may feel justified at various moments. But all who watch Rendition should ask themselves, how many of the witches who confessed during the Inquisition were really witches? And how many innocent people were betrayed when these victims of torture, pushed past their limits, offered up names? Jake Gyllenhaal, quoting from Shakespheare, best sums it up: "I fear you speak upon the rack, which men enforced do speak anything.

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