| | | What if Someone You Love...Just Disappeared?
Features: DVD, Pan and Scan (TV Format), Spanish, Subtitled
Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard, and Alan Arkin star in Rendition, a thriller from director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi). Witherspoon stars as the American wife of an Egyptian-born chemical engineer who disappears on a flight from South Africa to Washington. The woman desperately tries to track her husband down, while a CIA analyst (Gyllenhaal) at a secret detention facility outside the U.S. is forced to question his assignment as he becomes party to the man's unorthodox interrogation.
"...this topical thriller about CIA-sanctioned torture is one of the most important "message" movies of the year." Jack Mathews, New York Daily News
"Taut, powerfully acted political thriller." Ken Fox, TV Guide
"A rarity -- a political film that delivers its timely message with a cinematic punch and no undue speechifying." Rick Groen, The Globe and Mail
Editor's Note
Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal star in this nail-biting political thriller from director Gavin Hood (TSOTSI). Showing the price and behind-the-scenes drama of post 9/11 anti-terrorist security policies, the film focuses on the controversial U.S. practice of transporting suspected terrorists to locations outside the U.S. for intense interrogation and, as the film suggests, torture. Here, it is Egyptian-born Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), an engineer and family man, who becomes a CIA target. On his way home to Chicago from business in South Africa, Anwar disappears at the Washington, D.C., airport. The records show he boarded the plane, but he never returns to his pregnant wife, Isabella (Witherspoon), and small son. As Anwar is taken to an undisclosed location for questioning, several other plotlines are introduced. After his partner is killed by a suicide bomber, Douglas Freeman (Gyllenhaal), a young and relatively inexperienced CIA analyst, must step in to observe the brutal torture and interrogation of Anwar at the hands of the brutish Abasi Fawal (Igal Naor), whose own daughter has run away with the brother of a potential terrorist. RENDITION tackles serious issues with an all-star cast that also includes a typically flawless Meryl Streep as a steely government official responsible for approving Anwar's kidnapping, and Peter Sarsgaard as old friend of Isabella who uses his political position to help her. RENDITION never delves too deeply into any one character, focusing instead on the important ways in which multiple storylines intersect and the personal stakes that each character has in the case. Clever editing and solid writing contribute to the film's success by encouraging the audience to view events from multiple points of view and by never becoming preachy or one-sided.
| Features | Audio: English | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: Spanish |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | Rendition - DVD Review By: Chris Cabin - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 2/8/2008 5:27 PM | |
The film's title comes from the term "extraordinary rendition," a buzzword dreamt up during the Clinton administration for when the government secretly extradites terrorist suspects to other countries to weasel around civil liberties. Whereas Stephen Gaghan's Syriana found fault with liberals and conservatives alike, Rendition blindly believes in one ending that will rightly crown those who stand against torture and persecution as the righteous. Towards the later half, the film goes so far as to presuppose that if people were to merely read about the torture and mistreatment of an innocent that would change things for the better. In many ways, Rendition can be best described as a fantasy....read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: New Line |
| Release Date: 5/6/2008 |
| Running Time: 122 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2007 | | Catalog ID: 1000036230 | | UPC: 00794043112928 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Available Subtitles: English, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[Hood] brings a sense of grim immediacy to his material....He draws performances of total conviction." 11/01/2007 p.59New York Times
"It has timely issues and serious ambitions....[The film] yields some touching moments and canny insights." 10/19/2007 p.E10 Los Angeles Times
"RENDITION couldn't be timelier....[Witherspoon's] face is pure, unalloyed determination...her eyes shoot beams of indignant righteousness." 10/19/2007 Ultimate DVD
4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's an undeniably powerful and shocking expose of the 'don't ask, don't tell' tactics used in the pursuit of democracy." 04/01/2008 p.80 ReelViews 6 of 10
Much as I might like to, I cannot heap praise upon director Gavin Hood's Rendition, a political thriller with aspirations of being so much more that it is. The film treads into the minefield of debate that exists surrounding the question of Constitutional Rights versus National Security. Some day, someone is going to make a very good movie about these issues - one that will take a hard look at the dangers inherent in not walking the fine tightrope that exists. Rendition, however, approaches the subject playing with a stacked anti-National Security deck and a script that is half-baked. Hood has staked out a position and defended it in a shockingly unsubtle way. Instead of experiencing a movie that's seriously interested in getting into all of the pluses and minuses of the policy of "extreme rendition," we are ambushed by a simplistic storyline that's more interested in sermonizing and demonizing than existing in the real world where things aren't as clear-cut as the movie would like us to believe. The film's disappointingly black-and-white approach robs characters and situations of badly needed ambiguity. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
Director Gavin Hood's terrifying, intelligent thriller "Rendition" puts a human face on the practice. We meet Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), an Egyptian-born American chemical engineer who lives in Chicago. He and his wife, Isabella (Reese Witherspoon), have a young son, and she is in advanced pregnancy with another child. After boarding a flight home from a conference in Cape Town, South Africa, Anwar disappears from the airplane, his name disappears from the passenger list and Isabella hears nothing more from him...Gavin Hood, the South African-born director of "Rendition," first came into wide view with the wonderful "Tsotsi" (2005), which won the Academy Award for best foreign film. Now comes this big, confident, effective thriller with its politics so seamlessly a part of its story. Next for him: "Wolverine," based on the "X-Men" character. I hope we don't lose him to blockbusters. A film like "Rendition" is valuable and rare. As I wrote from Toronto: "It is a movie about the theory and practice of two things: torture and personal responsibility. And it is wise about what is right, and what is wrong." - Roger Ebert
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