New Line Cinema's

Rendition

Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, Robert Clotworthy

Directed by: Gavin Hood

RS: 2of 4 Stars

2007 New Line Cinema All Movies

Despite the best intentions, this is a simplistic, skin-deep attempt by director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) to rage against the U.S. policy of torturing suspected terrorists in foreign prisons. The film is crawling with Oscar winners: Reese Witherspoon as the pregnant Chicago woman whose Egyptian-born husband (Omar Metwally) is put on the rack for a bombing in Africa; Meryl Streep as the CIA operative who orders the rendition; Alan Arkin as the senator who goes deaf on pleas to interfere from his assistant (Peter Sarsgaard) and a callow CIA newbie (Jake Gyllenhaal). What a cast, indeed. And what a bust as persuasive drama.

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