Rendition ***Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Alan Arkin, Meryl Streep, J.K. Simmons, Omar Metwally
Director: Gavin Hood
Running Length: 2:00
MPAA Classification: R

Egyptian-American Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Metwally) is returning to the United States to see this wife Isabella (Witherspoon) and son. When a CIA official (Streep) receives intelligence that El-Ibrahimi may be involved with a North African terrorist attack, she orders him subjected to rendition, the policy of shipping detainees to foreign soil so they can be tortured to elicit information from them. Soon he is being interrogated in part by CIA analyst Duncan Freeman (Gyllenhaal), who comes to believe he is innocent. Meanwhile, Isabella goes to Washington to try to find her husband.

“Rendition” attempts to tackle a current issue and has mixed success. The story is compelling, but Anwar’s guilt or innocence seems pretty cut and dry. That robs the story of some of its punch. Witherspoon and Gyllenhaal, as the leads, seem to have less screen time than would be warranted for lead actors. Witherspoon has the meater role as the terrified wife, while Gyllenhaal spends a lot of time watching the actions of other characters. “Rendition” is a politically charged film that obviously takes a shot at the current administration, and those that may be turned off by that should probably look elsewhere. Overall, “Rendition” is a good movie that could have been better. While slightly disappointed with it, it is still worth seeing.