Review of Rendition (2007) by Jonathon C — 10 Apr 2009

As far as climactic twists go Rendition is easily the best of any film I've seen to date, it absolutely brought to tears (inwardly of course, ahem...). I did feel a little ambiguous about the message conveyed by the film in it's entirety; who is a victim and who is the villain is an unresolved tension in the film where in the final scene's, sympathy seems to be given to the avenger of his brother's blood (though we don't know at all what his brother's history is- the apparent connotation being symbolic of government victimization of the poor of the Islamic world). The parallel story being the interrogation of a man who we find after his extensive suffering is innocent is obviously not intended to be complimentary to US policy when dealing in matters of it's own security (individual human rights and justice being compromised in the name of national security, etc).

Unfortunately Reese Witherspoon's character and situation was under-developed which detracted from the value of her character's role in the film. (Didn't she have any friends or family to support her- she just seemed to be out there on her own). Jake Gyllenhaal's character was equally underacted and uninspiring. Streep, Alan Arkin and Driss Roukhe were extremely good, but the forgotten pair that hold the entire film together are ironically not even listed here in the FB cast list in the margin of this page. Hence I can't give the names of these 2 outstanding arab actors. The one who played Fatima was not only accomplished, but her character contained genuine beauty and depth which compelled empathy and even a tear (inwardly) in the aftermath of the climax.