A Shorter Review Because I'm Tired

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Rendition

A film that I watched because of Eugene's excellent novelty choice in birthday present choice, as well as the fact that I had a trial debate on this very topic and I'm glad I did. Rendition has a few main things going for it, as well as a few drawbacks that occur not because of perhaps missed opportunities or lazy editing, but because of the stylistic and creative choices that the director chose to employ. Essentially, the film is about the practice of extraordinary rendition. What makes it extraordinary is perhaps because it's illegal. America, being the schoolyard bully that it is, decides it's above the law and decides to continue this practice of torture, but decides that any cowardous schoolyard bully that they would prefer to get their cronies and henchmen to do the actual bashing. Since they're too clean and too suave to get their hands dirty, the Americans sent through the FBI suspected terrorists to African countries such as Morocco, where torture is no such issue. In the relative isolation of a desert where nobody can hear you scream, the torture is conducted and continued, completely unbeknownst to all the unsuspecting people in the States.

Well, two problems here. Firstly, the people who know this 'suspected terrorist' obviously know he's missing. This forms a subplot of the story. Secondly, extraordinary rendition is quite a well known term. Hell, it even has its own Wikipedia entry page. It is obviously something that people know about. They are aware that it's happening, it's just that for most people they're not too sure when, where and to who exactly. The film's aim seems to be to make people aware of extraordinary rendition, and Yes maybe this might be a valid message, but it seems a bit outdated and unnecessary in these modern times. Having said that, the message is portrayed relatively quite well and effectively, with an interesting temporal twist to the plot which I must say, even if it seems like I'm boasting, I did see coming.

Again, I won't spoil it, but it was gutsy, it was clever but perhaps it was maybe a bit too clever. What this did was it ruined the linear flow of the movie, making us unsure which timeframe the two distinct storylines were happening, especially since a main character was somewhat a presence in both of them. This confusion didn't detract much from the plot because I honestly didn't find the second storyline that interesting, despite it being a precursor to the events that occurred at the beginning of the film. Ok, I spoiled it, but seriously how many of you were really going to watch this film anyway?

One drawback about the plot is it probably had a few too many characters for me to actually care about them all. The main characters, if not annoying were underused or underexplored, meaning that at the end of the film their motives remained unclear, as well as their limited analysis on each person's transformation and the effect that rendition or the death of a loved one has had on each of the people involved. However, the ending sequence is especially powerful, and I thought that the film overall was pretty solid plot-wise.

Acting-wise not so much. Maybe it was because of the plot, but I didn't emphasise with many of the characters too much due to the portrayal of their characters. The emotional weighting of such a controversial topic wasn't deeply explored, and when it was, like with Reese Witherspoon's character, they overdramaticised it to the point where her screaming and yelling and screeching just became annoying and painful to watch. Out of the entire cast, only Omar Metwally as Anwar El-Ibrahimi was truly convincing, while I thought Peter Sarsgaard and Alan Arkin gave pretty good performances too. Yigal Naor was alright and I didn't really care for the rest. I don't even know why Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon were billed as leading actor/actress. Or maybe they weren't. Not too sure on that one. Suffice it to say, I wasn't impressed by them.

The dark scenes were shot extremely well and the cinematography was on the whole top-notch. It captured the solemn and serious nature of extraordinary rendition, and the whole emotional turmoil matched the sheer brutality and cruelty expressed in some of the torture scenes. The explosion wasn't too bad either, so on the whole, pretty good stuff in that department.

I loved the chilling choral soprano soloes throughout the film, especially in the ending sequence. I'm a big fan of these although many people I know despise these sort of musical backgrounds. I loved how music was employed during the film, as it certainly emphasised the harsh reality of this unjust and inhumane practice while also being struck by the loss and joyful reunion experienced by some of the characters. Some storylines are left unresolved, some end happy. That's probably the best way to end one of these films. Open-endedly, because this practice still exists, and while there was a happy ending for some in this film, how many people today don't get to see their families ever again because they died as a result of extraordinary rendition?

Overall, a strong outing by Gavin Hood that took a controversial current issue and retold in an emotionally compelling manner, despite some shortcomings.

7/10

Till next time, may you agglomerate all your unpremeditated contemplations