Rendition - Movie Review
Terrorism has been a very big problem around the world for many years. Countries, including the United States, have developed some controversial or even disturbing methods for trying to fight terrorism. The movie Rendition, while fiction, does touch on this issue.
Anwar El-Ibrahimi was in South Africa for a work related conference. He called his wife Isabella in Chicago before his flight left. She was going to be picking him up at the airport with their young son Jeremy.
That same day in North Africa, Douglas Freeman, a CIA analyst, was with William Dixon, an agent just assigned to that local area. They got stuck in traffic near where Abasi Fawal, a man in a position of power in the area, was having his morning tea. An explosion went off in the area that was later connected to a terrorist group. Douglas and Fawal survived, but William Dixon was killed.
Back in the United States, Corrine Whitman of the CIA was notified of what happened. She made the decision to pick up Anwar for questioning because he was Egyptian along with another minor connection. He was first questioned by Lee Mayer and then even though he didn’t seem to know anything and had passed a lie detector test, Corrine ordered him moved out of the country for further questioning. He was taken to the area in North Africa where Fawal and Douglas were. Fawal would be in charge of the interrogation while Douglas would be observing for the CIA.
Isabella thought at first that she had gotten her husband’s flight information wrong when he didn’t show up at the airport. She started making calls and didn’t get too far, though through her own research was able to prove that he had been on the place from Egypt. She decided to contact Alan Smith, an old friend who worked for Senator Hawkins, to see if he could help. Back in Africa, Fawal’s daughter Fatima was living with her aunt because she was trying to stand up to her father wanting to her marry someone he chose. She was spending a lot of time with Khalid, a boy she went to school with. Unfortunately she didn’t know that he had ties to a terrorist group.
Rendition had a lot going on and featured several different characters with a lot going on. I really have just barely touched on what was happening. It showed bits of different stories that ended up being interrelated in some way. Really everything shown was connected back to the explosion. For some things, like showing Anwar and then Isabella, it was clear what the connection was. It took longer to fully understand how certain other events and characters were connected than others. If people don’t pay attention, they could miss something and be left wondering why a scene was important or what it had to do with the main plot. The movie did jump between the different stories which was a little jarring at first. The way the movie jumped around may bother or even confuse some viewers.
A decent amount of Rendition took place in North Africa. I don’t remember it being said exactly which country in North Africa it was. There were a lot of Arab people living there. During many of the scenes set in that country, the people were speaking in a different language and subtitles were used. That might bother people who aren’t overly fond of movies with subtitles. Those people may not want to watch the movie if the subtitles would bother them that much. I hadn’t been expecting subtitles, so that was a little surprising to me. Some of the movie also took place in Chicago and Washington, D.C., mostly when Isabella was shown trying to find out what happened to her husband.
Rendition wasn’t a happy movie in way, shape, or form. Terrorism is a very real threat that the world has been trying to deal with. After the events of 9/11, there has been more focus on trying to stop it. I have heard stories about some of the rather controversial methods that have been employed in dealing with suspected terrorists on behalf of the government. This movie did focus in on those methods. Several things that happened to Anwar were very disturbing to see. It is horrible to think that things like what happened to Anwar really could happen. Late in the movie, one character asked just how effective torture was in getting useful information while it would definitely create numerous new enemies.
At one point, Corrine stated that the United States did not torture people. Technically she was right, though she and others were involved without actually actively participating. Corrine was the one that made the decision to pick up Anwar and then to send him to the secret facility in North Africa. Once Anwar was there, Fawal took care of the torture while Douglas observed without participating. Several scenes involved the torture that Anwar was put through and were rather violent. None of the torture scenes were pleasant to watch and will more than likely upset some viewers. It wasn’t pleasant to see the terrorist activities either. After the explosion, some of the victims were shown and that involved a lot of blood which will bother some viewers.
Rendition had several characters that were connected to each other in some way even when they didn’t actually know about each other. For example, Isabella was greatly impacted by the decisions of Corrine, Fawal, and Douglas even though she didn’t know them and they didn’t know her. It was interesting how the characters were connected and those connections did work. The movie kept shifting the focus to show the different characters so several of them really didn’t receive much attention.
There has been a lot of stories about how Witherspoon and Gyllenhaal started a relationship while making this movie. That’s kind of ironic because their characters never share even one scene in the movie. Isabella was shown in Chicago and then Washington, D.C. while Douglas was in North Africa for the entire movie. Isabella was determined to find out what happened to Anwar. Not much of anything else was shared about her, though there was a small attempt to share the connection she had with Alan. Reese Witherspoon handled the part well and made the character believable. Peter Sarsgaard was good as Alan. Alan Arkin was in a couple of scenes as Senator Hawkins, the senator that Alan worked for.
I think that Douglas was shown a little more than Isabella was. Douglas had only been with the CIA for a short time and he'd never been involved in anything like what happened to Anwar before and he had doubts about how effective the methods were. Jake Gyllenhaal was good in the part. Lee Mayer acted like he was Douglas’s boss even though Lee was in the United States and Douglas was in North Africa. Lee was only shown a couple of times, so J.K. Simmons really didn’t have a lot to do. Lee in turn reported to Corrine. I can’t remember if her actual title was even given, but it was made very clear that she was high up in the CIA and had a lot of power. She made decisions that impacted many people and she didn’t seem overly concerned about that. Meryl Streep also didn’t have a lot to do in the movie, but she was very good. Bob Gunton turned up a couple of times as Corrine’s husband Lars.
Abasi Fawal had a lot of power in the North African country where part of the movie took place. I don’t think he was in the military, but I could be wrong. He did have a relationship with Corrine and evidently he'd regularly used torture to interrogate suspected terrorists. He was also dealing with the problems with his daughter Fatima. He was very stubborn about certain things related to his family. Fatima was trying to stand up to him and she was spending a lot of time with her friend Khalid. He did seem to sort of be like a boyfriend. He was keeping things from her, like the fact that he was involved with a terrorist group.
Rendition was a powerful, well done movie. The subject matter was disturbing and controversial, so it won’t be for everyone even though I do think it is worth seeing.