RENDITION

RENDITION TRANSLATES TO A LANGUAGE WE ALL CAN UNDERSTAND

"Rendition: handing over prisoners to countries where torture is allowed." This is what is happening right now. This is our world. If you have a different skin color or come from foreign soil, even if you look like you do, you are perceived as a threat. We've grown into a country waiting for the other shoe to fall. Since 9/11 everything has changed. The "we" is now an "us" and "them". We are alone in this world, just like the characters in this film. Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) is detained while trying to return home to his wife (Reese Witherspoon) son and his soon to be born baby. This is where to nightmare begins. He is sent back and footsteps ultimately erased, albeit sloppily. He now lives in a dark damp cell; a dirty, bloody, intimidating place. He is tortured in full view of the American CIA agent, Douglas Freeman ( Jake Gyllenhaal) who has been thrust into a situation, not by choice, and has to decide which side of the road he intends to walk. After a while of witnessing this brutal and bloody torture he asks, "In all the years you've been doing this, how often can you say that we've produced truly legitimate intelligence? Once? Twice? Ten times? Give me a statistic; give me a number. Give me a pie chart, I love pie charts. Anything, anything that outweighs the fact that if you torture one person you create ten, a hundred, a thousand new enemies." The paperwork and red tape and politicians all get intertwined when meanwhile, this man is dying a slow death by torture. His wife is doing all she can with people who simply won't acknowledge her presence, even when contradictory proof is offered. Meryl Streep plays a cold hearted bitch, with class. Her dismissive "I can destroy you" attitude made me sick. Witherspoon could be playing a more sympathetic character against this politician who eats people like her for breakfast. I can't say I was overjoyed by Gyllenhaal's performance, but it may have been an error in the script as he is a proven actor. He was able to play the man caught in the middle and when dealing with politicians. He has a tough choice to make. What does he decide; protocol or humanity? Overall, it was an intense, gripping drama that must be paid the most careful of attention to; so that the end will come full circle and make sense.

PICK: The truth hurts and this will too, but it is worth the payoff at the end.