Director Gavin Hood's "Rendition" has all the makings of a great film -- a story that gives new reason for people around the world to hate on the Bush Administration, a Super Star ensemble cast of Reese Witherspoon ("Legally Blonde"), Jake Gyllenhaal ("Brokeback Mountain"), Meryl Streep ("The Devil Wears Prada") and Peter Sarsgaard ("Jarhead") and a beautiful Egyptian shooting location. But it proves not to be so easy, as the product is less than the sum of its parts.
The title refers to Extraordinary Rendition, a tool used by U.S. intelligence to bypass the part of the constitution that prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, especially with regard to suspected terrorisists. By detaining these suspects in locations outside of the states, the U.S. Government is able to use allied nations to torture and abuse the suspects.
This process becomes illuminated in the story of Egyptian American Anwar El Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) a prominent chemical engineer and his son's soccer coach, as he is snatched from the airport and taken shackled and masked to an undisclosed location in Egypt for suspected involvement in an Egyptian terrorist ring. He is brought there by the Egyptian government in collaboration with the American CIA.
Meanwhile, his pregnant wife -- played by Witherspoon -- and 6-year-old son wait at the arrivals gate for El Ibrahimi, who never appears. As the two realize that he is not coming, his pregnant wife turns away. At this moment, I wanted to feel for them, but we got nothin'.
From here, Witherspoon's character begins a search for her missing husband. Of course, her first effort is to contact old friend - played by Sarsgaard -- who is an aide to a U.S. Senator. The friend finds quite a bit of information for El Ibrahimi's wife and uses his political leverage to get a few scathing words in with the CIA official - played by Streep -- who authorized this extraordinary rendition. Just as you might think the friend is going to be the hero and stick it to the CIA, he shreds a picture of El Ibrahimi and walks off screen forever.
Meanwhile, El Ibrahimi endures days of torturous treatment by the Egyptian government in hopes of getting information regarding a certain terrorist Rashid Salimi. Gyllenhaal, as a CIA analyst, accompanies the Egyptian officials in these barbarous interrogations. Gyllenahaal shows a diminutive amount of discomfort with this situation, but his limited number of lines and lack of character development are somewhat disappointing.
Although the cinematography and well constructed scenes keep our interest, this can only take us to the surface as an audience. It is as if we have shaken the hands of all these characters, but have not gone on this horrific journey with any of them.
Although a twist at the end involving the sub-plot Egyptian interrogator and his daughter's radical boyfriend keeps the action alive, it does nothing to advance the storyline, message, or increase the relationship between the two plotlines and in turn becomes somewhat of a distraction. This little turn makes the ending quite perplexing and lose its fervor.
Also in the end, no true hero arises and no real conclusion comes to our attention. I'd hope that what the director is trying to tell us is that this is the new post Sept. 11 policy at its worst. Those who have pull do not use it in a well intentioned, determined way, and those who do not have the power use their personal will to fulfill their own needs and are unable to make a significant or lasting change.
