A Thought to Ponder: Rendition

Rendition
Directed by Gavin Hood
Released October 19, 2007

I will admit that this was better than I was expecting given the rather unexciting trailer. There is more going on than the previews led on, by which I mean that it is a multi-faceted story which covers, if not entirely successfully, a number of different elements. This is more than just the story of Reese Witherspoon screaming about her missing husband, and does delve into the aspect of torture and the arguments for and against it. The biggest disappointment here is not the plot but rather the cast. With the exception of the brilliant J.K. Simmons and always good Peter Sarsgaard, the heavily Oscar-nominated cast is just not great at all. The poorly written dialogue is delivered flatly by Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Alan Arkin, and the always-hyped Meryl Streep slips in and out of an accent for the length of the film. The better part of the film is that the story really is not about Witherspoon, Arkin, and Streep, which makes for some of their mediocre scenes. Be prepared for some disturbing scenes if you choose to see this one.

C+