10th February, 2008

PHIL SMITH

Rendition (MA15+)

"It is now clear that we are facing an implacable enemy whose avowed objective is world domination...there are no rules in such a game. Hitherto acceptable norms of human conduct do not apply."

Not a recent quote, those lines are from a CIA report to President Truman in the early years of the Cold War. Perhaps little has changed.

ART IMITATING LIFE?: Jake Gyllenhaal plays CIA analyst Douglas Freeman in 'Rendition'.   "The film doesn't run in chronological sequence. It’s not that simple. Nor is the underlying question when Rendition focuses down from a systemic issue to personal choices: What if the means were placed in your hands with the end in sight?"

Directed by Gavin Hood and written by Kelly Sane, Rendition asks a big question in a very personal way. World War, Cold War, Global War on Terror – can the end justify the means?

Isabella Fields El-Ibrahimi (Reese Witherspoon) is an all-American, heavily pregnant, suburban, upper middle class mom. She is married to Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) - an Egyptian chemical engineer who carries a Green Card, is a 20 year US resident and NYU graduate but who has the wrong numbers in his mobile phone’s calls received log.

As a consequence, El-Ibrahimi disappears and is bundled aboard a CIA jet bound for a North African nation (Egypt) where he is questioned by interrogators - aided by CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) - in an attempt to ascertain whether he is really a terrorist.

Metwally’s performance as El-Ibrahimi is raw. He seems to ask the audience, “How do you think you’d feel?”

The film takes its name from the CIA practice known as ‘rendition’, established under President Bill Clinton. To all legal intents and purposes, the US does not torture prisoners. However, on the basis of evidence that cannot be used in a civilian court, suspected terrorists have been abducted and delivered into the hands of allied governments for interrogations that would never be permitted in the West.

Rendition seems to follow a predictable civil libertarian line. But, to be fair, the (female) director of CIA operations is allowed to state her case. Meryl Streep’s Corrine Whitman is one hard old pragmatist: “Intelligence gathered by these means saved seven thousand lives in London. My grandchildren live in London. I’m glad I’m running this operation and you’re not.”

Can we measure the value of lives in raw numbers? As he tortures the hapless prisoner, the Middle Eastern security chief Abasi Fawal (Yigor Naor) shows his CIA counterpart an explosive vest used by suicide bombers. There is no subtlety as he insists saving lives is his “sacred duty”. He has no sympathy for the family man from Chicago as he is water-boarded and electrocuted.

In line with the question asked in the film’s publicity material - “What if someone you love just disappeared?” - Fawal’s own daughter disappears and for a long time the audience is allowed to assume she is only fleeing an arranged marriage and her stereotypical middle-aged, Middle Eastern father.

The film doesn't run in chronological sequence. It’s not that simple. Nor is the underlying question when Rendition focuses down from a systemic issue to personal choices: What if the means were placed in your hands with the end in sight?

While it's only in the last few minutes that Rendition achieves its best, the film’s conclusion is its weak point: a CIA agent with a change of heart and the press save the day. Neither of those seems realistic. The realism in the end is in the wealthy suburbs of the West - comfortable and secure. Families in the Middle East are torn apart, figuratively and literally.

Rendition is worth the price of your ticket. This reviewer walked out into the sunshine, took a deep breath, and wasn’t so sure there is an easy answer for Rendition’s big question.

'Rendition' will be released in Australia on 14th February.

~ www.renditionmovie.com