By Curt Schleier
RENDITION is an exciting suspenseful thriller, a morality play on a roller coaster that sadly leaves the tracks just before the ride is over.
It centers on what is known as “extraordinary rendition,” a policy that began during the Clinton administration – that is, Bill Clinton – but stepped up after 9/11. It allows American authorities to kidnap foreign nationals suspected of terrorist activities, move them overseas to a place where it’s torture that means never having to say you’re sorry.
The chances are you’ve read about this in the newspaper or watched a story about it on TV; but actually witnessing it happen -- even in a movie -- is so claustrophobic, so frightening, you’ll elbow the people in the seats next to you searching for more room to breathe.
Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) is a highly-regarded, Egyptian-born, American-educated biochemist. He is married to the all-American girl, his college sweetheart, Isabella. They have a young boy and she is nine-months pregnant with their second. Returning from a conference in South Africa where he was a featured speaker, Anwar changes planes in, ironically, the nation’s capital. Suddenly, he’s whisked off to the side, a sack is placed over his head and he’s taken to a CIA location. His bags are removed from the luggage and his name from the computer; he has in effect disappeared.
Ultimately, on the authority of the head of the CIA’s counter-terrorism unit, Corrinne Whitman (Meryl Streep), he’s sent to a country in North Africa, where he is brutally interrogated by Abasi Fawal (Igal Naor). There had just been a suicide bomb plot there. Fawal was the target. And the CIA traced a call from the cell of the terrorist who claimed credit for the bomb to Anwar’s phone. Fawal wants answers.
Isabella and their son await him in Chicago; when he doesn’t arrive they check with the airlines and with the police. He apparently got on the place in South Africa but never made it to the States. She doesn’t know what to believe until she checks his credit card statement and discovers he made a duty free purchase on the plane to Washington; he definitely was on the plane to Washington when it took off.
She takes her case to a college chum, Alan Smith (Peter Sarsgaard), now a top assistant to Sen. Hawkins (Alan Arkin). Smith investigates and discovers that Anwar has been kidnapped. He confronts Whitman, to no avail. He tries to get the Senator to intercede, but Hawkins, refuses. Worried about his political future, he screams at him and orders him to stop pushing on this. He does.
The real hero, the only one who puts anything on the line, is Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal), a CIA analyst in this mythical North African country. Freeman and a colleague – a black ops kind of guy – were on their way to meet Fawal when the explosion occurs. His associate is killed. So Freeman, a desk jockey, is assigned the task of observing the interrogation. Over time he comes to believe Anwar and risks his career to free him.
There is so much that is good about this film. It’s not some polemic screed; it explores those gray areas so often overlooked. Yes, Whitman is something of a bitch, but she claims information obtained through extraordinary rendition questioning prevented a bombing in London.
On the other hand, Freeman asks Fawal how many of his interrogations have resulted in useful information. Fawal looks down and doesn’t answer.
The acting overall is fine but Omar Metwally as Anwar El-Ibrahimi steals the film. Every gesture, every word reveals his confusion. This is America; how could this be happening? Even as the first blows are struck, it just doesn’t compute. There should be awards in this for him.
With all this going for it, what could be wrong? Semi-spoiler alert: Do no read on as you will get a clue about the film’s denouement. In addition to the storylines about Isabella’s efforts to secure the release of her husband and the interrogation itself, there is a third about Fawal’s daughter, from whom he is estranged, and her boyfriend.
Director Gavin Hood makes it appear that all three stories take pace concurrently; they do not. When you discover the discrepancy, you will feel manipulated, confused and disappointed. That also opens the way for you to think of plot holes you might have missed.
Consider this: at the start of the film, as he is leaving the conference, Anwar gets a call. He’s too late to answer it. So he calls his wife back in the States and asks if she called him. He could have checked his cell phone to see who the call was from. That’s presumably how the CIA fingered Anwar. But the technology also is in place to indicate that the phone was never answered!
Despite these flaws, RENDITION is a rare film that inspires thought and discussion long after the theater lights come up.
Will Durst, the comedian/political commentator said recently (and I paraphrase) to make frog soup, you don’t throw a frog in boiling water. It will only jump out. You put the frog in cold water and then start to heat it up. The frog won’t notice until it’s to late.
I don’t know about the rest of you frogs, but with rendition and eaves dropping and all, it’s starting to get a little warm in here. Am I the only who notices?