Thursday, February 28, 2008 5:43 PM CST
DVD REVIEW: "Rendition"
(2007)
By Nathaniel West, Staff Writer
nwest@jg-tc.com
Rated: R for torture/violence and language.
Plot & Players: Using film as a sly medium for inspiring change is one thing; being pompous and pretentious is another. Unfortunately, “Rendition” falls like a skydiver without a parachute into the latter category, as a post-September 11 policy allowing the U.S. government to circumvent due process is brought to task by Reese Witherspoon (“Walk the Line”), Jake Gyllenhaal (“Jarhead”), Meryl Streep (“The Devil Wears Prada”) Alan Arkin (“Little Miss Sunshine”) and a cadre of other snarling and sniveling celebs. Witherspoon’s Egyptian-born husband is suspected of ties to terrorists thanks to an unexplained call to his cell phone from an Islamic fundamentalist, so at the behest of the evil CIA (boo and hiss freely) he’s hauled off to undergo torture in North Africa with nary a word to his wife, his son, his unborn child or his attorney. Oh, and there’s some kind of secondary love story involving two star-crossed lovers … Hmmm, drat, what were their names again? Capulet and Montague? No, that’s not right. Wait, it’s coming to me …
Some Highlights: “Rendition” is pure agenda-driven Hollywood drivel, doing as little for the fight against eroding civil liberties as do-gooder films like “John Q” and “The Life of David Gale” did to promote universal healthcare and oppose the death penalty, respectively. The number of self-righteous A-list actors who signed on for what would otherwise be a gimmicky made-for-television movie should throw up a red flag faster than a referee at a France versus Italy soccer match. The phrase “getting your point across” implies subtlety and stealth, hence the use of the word “point.” But films like “Rendition,” despite their slickness, still are nothing more than blunt instruments of persuasion -- as sneaky as a sledgehammer and not nearly as effective.
Quality: Two out of five stars.
Like It?: Without giving away too much, I think the folks behind “Rendition” were trying to draw a link between post-9/11 Western imperialism and that which motivates terrorists to do things like turn themselves into self-destructing messengers of religious zealotry. After all, if this complicated dichotomy worked in “Syriana,” why not here? Alas, as “Rendition” filmmakers got deeper and deeper into the project but found the relationship between the aforementioned thorny issues remained hazy, they tried something desperate: A completely pointless plot twist. But don’t worry, because knowing about it in advance won’t change your feelings about the film’s outcome one bit. And it’s too bad, really, because there are probably some good points (ahem) to be made here, and a better film -- minus the inconsequential turn of events -- would have made them.
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