At one point during Rendition,"" Meryl Streep's character defends the use of torture to acquire information, stating, ""There are upwards of 7,000 people in central London alive tonight because of information that we elicited just this way."" A movie with such controversial ideas seems to guarantee, at the very least, some degree of enthusiasm from its viewers. However, if a film tries to squeeze too much into its two-hour run, any theme can become masked by complications.
""Rendition"" centers on the idea of extraordinary rendition, the act of transporting suspected terrorists to distant locations for more ethically questionable forms of interrogation. The movie begins when Egyptian-born Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) is detained at an airport regarding suspected terrorism connections. El-Ibrahimi is taken to a secret prison in North Africa, where he is mercilessly tortured for information. At the prison, he meets Douglas Freeman, a CIA analyst (Jake Gyllenhaal). After witnessing El-Ibrahimi's torture, Freeman begins to question the ethics of his assignment.
Meanwhile, Anwar's wife (Reese Witherspoon) is in the United States desperately trying to find out why her husband never got off his flight. She seeks the help of an old college friend (Peter Sarsgaard), whose government position gives him access to a senator (Alan Arkin) and eventually the woman behind the United States' acts of extraordinary rendition (Meryl Streep). The film also manages to include another subplot occurring in North Africa regarding a young Islamic couple and the young man's pressure to join a terrorist cell.
At first glance, the movie seems to make its success inevitable. ""Rendition"" is filled with solid actors who give moving performances. Sarsgaard stands out in his portrayal of his character's struggle between his moral values and his ambition, and Streep gives a convincingly cold interpretation of the right-wing views on national security.
Director Gavin Hood's last project, ""Tsotsi,"" was a satisfying and powerful portrait of salvation from the violent gang life of South Africa. Like ""Tsotsi,"" ""Rendition"" raises thought-provoking questions about contemporary society. The film's goal is clearly to invoke political debates between its viewers. But, while ""Tsotsi"" left viewers wiping tears from their eyes with a clear understanding of the film's message, ""Rendition"" never quite manages to achieve that level of power.
""Rendition"" attempts to follow the footsteps of previous vignette-style films like ""Crash"" and ""Babel,"" addressing a certain social issue by connecting seemingly isolated characters and unifying them under one central theme. ""Crash"" and ""Babel"" are effective because the multiple plots come together in the end to leave the viewer ultimately satisfied. ""Rendition"" seems to have forgotten a key detail in the blueprint for success in this type of film: simplicity. The numerous stories do not offer closure at the end of the film and leave the audience confused and overwhelmed. Whereas the aforementioned films come full circle, ""Rendition"" leaves its stories unfulfilled and unraveled.
The film essentially has high hopes for itself. It has an ambitious agenda and attempts to persuade its viewers with a talented director and cast. However, the multiple plot complications cause ""Rendition"" to lose its intellectual steam. The audience roots for its success at every plot junction, but for all its good intentions, it can't quite climb out of the obscurity it piles on itself.
