CinePhillyist Reviews... Rendition

Warning: Possible spoiler alert.

Rendition is the kind of movie that has Conservatives in Washington screaming about Liberal Hollywood. It takes its name from the policy of extraordinary rendition, or torture by proxy, as many critics refer to it. In short, and in no uncertain terms (at least according to the film), extraordinary rendition is bad, bad, bad – but just to prevent from pissing too many Conservatives off, the film is sure to mention that the policy actually began under the Clinton Administration.

Whether you agree that extraordinary rendition is bad or not, you probably don't want someone's position on it shoved down your throat. But that's exactly what the script of Rendition does. The cast is great, truly, and does the best it can with a mediocre script that is over-long and full of holes and logical fallacies. (The biggest one being Jake Gyllenhall needing two hours of film—and presumably several weeks of observing torture—to decide that what he was witnessing was so wrong that he needed to do something about it.) The film is so obsessed with torture that, instead of shocking the audience, we eventually grow numb and accept it. There's also a fun little plot twist at the end that's slightly unexpected, but the surprise is more because I couldn't believe that they'd used that cinematic cliche than because I'd been blown away by the "surprise" ending. (I'll admit that I didn't see it coming, but at the same time, just like with The Sixth Sense, once you know how it ends, you can remember all of the hints that you should have picked up on.)

Rendition may actually get away with an acting nod or two, even though the critics have been generally negative about the film. But listen to the critics, not the Academy. If you want to see two and a half hours of pointless torture, check out Saw – I think that the seventeenth installment is on its way soon.