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| Cast and Credits |
| Cast: |
Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Alan Arkin, Peter Saarsgard, Meryl Streep |
| Director: |
Gavin Hood |
| Writer: |
Kelley Sane |
| Rating: |
Rated R for torture/violence and language. |
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Reviewed By: Erin Cullin
Rating: 10/10
In the 1990's, in response to increasing evidence of terrorist threats originating from the Middle East, the CIA developed a covert program known as "extraordinary rendition". Approved by the Clinton administration as Presidential Decision Directive 39, the program permitted CIA operatives to identify persons of interest, apprehend them and transport them to third-party states for "questioning".
Originally, the principal third party state to which detainees were "rendered" was Egypt and the practice of extraordinary rendition was used sparingly. Then, on a sunny September morning in 2001, four groups of men boarded a series of flights and forever changed the world as we know it. Since that time, extraordinary rendition has become a powerful weapon in the Bush administration's arsenal as it fights the "war on terror". The co-operating third party states have been expanded to include Jordan, Syria, Morocco and Uzbekistan. Foreign nationals of a certain religious persuasion living in North America have reason to fear the prospect of travelling abroad, as they can never be certain that they will land in their appointed destination.
Regrettably, extraordinary rendition is a program which is all too familiar to Canadians. Just ask Maher Arar. Or Bashir Makhtal. Or Arwad Al-Boushi. Or Abdullah Almalki. Or Ahmad Abou El-Maati. Or Muayyed Nureddin. Or the growing list of Canadians who have found themselves being involuntary rendered to any number of Middle Eastern countries for "questioning" after Canadian and American officials have developed suspicions that they have been engaged in terrorist activities abroad.
Oscar-winning director Gavin Hood (his 2005 film, "Tsotsi" won the award for Best Foreign Language Film) knows all too well the measures that governments will adopt to gather intelligence from their citizens. A native of South Africa, Hood noted during a series of press interviews at the Toronto International Film Festival that growing up in a country where indefinite detention without trial had historically existed gave him a unique perspective on the issue. He related to the press that he had the first-hand experience of having friends "disappear" for several months. With that background, he was the ideal choice to direct New Line Cinema's ensemble piece, "Rendition".
"Rendition" is a film about one man's extraordinary rendition from the United States the Middle East. Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), an Egyptian national disappears en route to the United States, only to find himself imprisoned in a torturous Middle Eastern interrogation facility overseen by Abasi Fawal (Igal Naor). After his superior dies in his arms following a suicide bombing, CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) assumes responsibility for his portfolio, but struggles when he begins to question the objectives and the methods of his collaborator, Fawal, and his superiors, Lee Mayer (J.K. Simmons) and Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep). Within the walls of his interrogation facility, Fawal is cold and calculating, but when he leaves he is a family man, vulnerable to fear as a parent whose teenage daughter, Fatima (Zineb Oukach), has left home in protest to her parents' strict and traditional rules. Isabella Fields El-Ibrahimi (Reese Witherspoon), Anwar's pregnant wife, wanting only to know where her husband has gone, turns to the only person who can help her, Alan Smith (Peter Sarsgaard), the college sweetheart that she left to marry Anwar. Alan, now working as an aide to a powerful Senator (Alan Arkin) must decide whether to help the woman that he still loves or to protect the career that he has built in her absence.
"Rendition" is a film that I was initially disappointed to have missed at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. After hearing rumours that a few critics had walked out of the press screenings, and after reading reviews that eviscerated the film, I began to think that missing it may have been a blessing. But then critics whose opinions I generally respect began to give the film a "thumbs up" and I decided to give it a chance.
In doing so, I learned one thing - sometimes, you just have to see a film and decide its worth for yourself.
"Rendition" is a film in which several storylines intersect to create the most compelling and provocative film that I have seen this year. Or, for that matter, any year following that fateful day in 2001.
It is difficult, in an ensemble piece with several seemingly parallel storylines, to create a film that is fluid, balanced and consistent, yet screenwriter Kelly Sane and director Gavin Hood seem to accomplish this task with relative ease. The storyline manages to capture and maintain the attention of the audience by revealing just enough to inform the audience but not so much that they feel overwhelmed by an unwieldy plot. With so many storylines, it would have been easy to spoonfeed a thousand tiny details to the audience and drown them in the process. Instead, Sane and Hood assume that the audience is intelligent enough to draw reasonable inferences and insightful enough to draw their own conclusions. In the end, "Rendition" offers discerning viewers sufficient material to provoke an endless number of debates about its subject-matter.
Another difficulty with ensemble pieces is appropriate ensemble casting. One weak link can destroy the entire chain. In casting "Rendition", Hood manages to strike just the right balance between major league players (Streep, Arkin, Gyllenhaal, Witherspoon), veteran supporting actors (Sarsgaard, Simmons) and relative newcomers (Metwally, Naor, Oukach), all of whom deliver solid performances. I was particularly impressed by Metwally's performance, but I had to wonder how comfortable he, with his Egyptian heritage, felt playing the role of the accused terrorist / torture recipient. If I had one criticism, it would probably be the casting of Meryl Streep in the role of Corrine Whitman. While she is a fantastic actress, I found her performance to be a bit matronly and indifferent, when it should have been passionate and uncompromising. I would have preferred to have seen Joan Allen, Judy Davis or Judi Dench cast in her role.
"Rendition" is one of the year's must-see films. It offers enough suspense to leave you sitting on the edge of your seat, and enough heart that you can feel yours breaking when the final intersection of the film's plots is revealed. It should be nominated for an Oscar, but I suspect that it will not because of its unflinching view of the extraordinary rendition program, its exposure of the arrogance and complicity that allow the program to exist and its placement of a human face on the "other side" of the war on terror. It points the finger at each and every one of us and it forces us to examine whether, in our dangerous world, the individual liberty of a few can or should ever be balanced against the security of many. And, if there is one thing that Maher Arar and Khalid El-Masri have taught us, the American government (and apparently American film critics, and my brother, Liam) cannot tolerate being on the receiving end of that finger of blame.
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