Loosely based on the allegations made by Khaled el-Masri and Maher Arar, “Rendition,” raises the ethical question of torturing suspected terrorists. It attempts to show as many sides to this sensitive issue as possible by running nine stereotypical perspectives parallel and ultimately running them together.
Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), an Egyptian-America, is falsely suspected of having ties to the terrorists. His record of ever having entered the U.S. is deleted, and the head of U.S. intelligence, Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep), has him sent to an anonymous African country for further investigation.
This transfer of a suspected terrorist to another location is called extraordinary rendition. It was authorized by the Clinton administration for combating Islamic terrorists, but after Sept. 11 its use is more frequent and more talked about.
El-Ibrahimi is taken to a prison and subjected to what is known as “enhanced interrogation techniques” such as waterboarding and electroshock. CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) observes interrogation expert Abasi Fawal (Yigal Naor) at work and slowly realizes the immorality of the practice.
When Freeman reports his speculation that El-Ibrahimi is innocent, Whitman asks if this was his first experience in the field. “This is my first torture,” he responds. Whitman calmly replies, “The United States does not torture.”
Meanwhile, Fawal’s daughter, Fatima (Zineb Oukach), is secretly seeing a boy named Khalid (Mohammed Khouas) with terrorist ties.
Back in America, Isabella Fields El-Ibrahimi (Reese Witherspoon) is desperate to find her husband. She contacts her college boyfriend Alan Smith (Peter Sarsgaard) an aide to Senator Hawkins (Alan Arkin) for help.
“Rendition” maintains a clear anti-torture position, but it even-handedly illustrates and explains extraordinary rendition and torture. Whenever a film comes out that takes a stance on an issue it is immediately labeled “liberal propaganda.” However, I feel like I understand the issue more thoroughly after seeing the film. All the characters, just like their real-life counterparts, have perfectly logical, defensible explanations for what they are or are not doing.
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The senator doesn’t believe he can risk his credibility and ultimately his re-election for sticking his neck out by protecting a potential terrorist. Ice-queen Whitman justifies the use of the so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” by imagining the 7,000 Londoners alive because of the information received from its use. Freeman witnesses its inhumanity first-hand.
You may still disagree with these explanations, but they’re much more satisfying than anything a terrorists-are-going-to-come-and-kill-your-families Bill O’Reilly lecture could tell you.
Arkin and Naor bring different but equally intense performances and Streep was wonderfully composed and strong, as usual. However, the younger talent in the piece fell behind. Witherspoon came off shrieky while Sarsgaard and Gyllenhaal were uncharacteristically dull.
Despite its strong statement and several remarkable performances, “Rendition” ultimately fell flat. All the bouncing back-and-forth between plot lines caused the movie to feel rushed and cluttered. If you’ve already made up your mind about torture and extraordinary rendition, you can skip it.
