Review of Rendition (2007) by Laurie P — 21 Apr 2009

It's been said a million times: no matter how graphic or suspenseful a horror film can be, it can never match up to the harrowing nature of real-life, which seems to be exactly the order of the day in Gavin Hood's political drama about the United States' unfair national security policy.

The heavily politicised story has the potential to be extremely gripping, and in terms of imagery Hood does not disappoint. Using two contrasting pallates of dark, earthen browns and cold, crisp blues, Hood is able to accurately portray not only the stark difference between the US and the Middle East, but also how far removed they are, almost to the point in which they seem like alternate realities.

The film's subplot, concerning the breakdown of Driss Roukhe's conservative Egyptian family in light of major a terrorist attack, is a clear sign that Hood knows his world cinema - the situations are painted in very similar fashion to a number of Turkish, Balkan and Iranian films - and for those in search of serious art this alone would have been sufficient.

Which bring us to the torture. As the film's major commercial draw, these scenes proved to somewhat lacking. From a realistic perspective, the sight of a man stripped naked recieving a Pinace Special is particularly confronting.

However (for no fault of the film or the director), in the age of SAW, which gore and human suffering becomes the main order of business, realistic violence becomes diluted, its mediocre presentation unable to illicit any strong emotional reactions, also not helped by the fact that their choice of torture victim is perhaps one of the worst actors I've seen in an A-List film.

The A-List actors, for the most part, do not impress either: the only notable exceptions being Jake Gyllenhaal, Driss Roukhe and JK Simmons (although eveventually even the former of the three slips into charicature).

On previous occasions, Reese Witherspoon has been forgiven for having to force emotion, but the sound of her squeaking "Just tell me he's OK!" grates on the audience and half makes you wish that the NSA had planned to torture her instead.

Similarly, Meryl Streep is usually the perferct choice for a cold, hard screen bitch (as evidenced by The Devil Wears Prada), but the delusion her character exudes seems a little too strong, bringing her to the verge of Saturday morning cartoon villainess.

All in all, as far as social commentary films go, Rendition is largely a visually impressive disappointment because it had potential to be so much more. For any one who has seen the unbearable opeing minutes of Murder in the First, one will know that that is how the film should have been - dark, harrowing and very introspective.

Instead, we are treated to a lot of philosophising (not too bad admittedly) and a predictably happy ending.