http://www.worldofkj.com/articleIndex.php?tid=30963

Great. Another film I'm going to get ridiculed for loving

Rendition is an incredibly powerful, thought-provoking and compelling film that is actually one of my favorites of the year so far. It handles the subject matter in brutal but realistic terms, and ultimately becomes quite haunting by the final frame. I thought all of the performances were unanimously great (Gyllenhaal has certainly done better work, but he was far from awful here), especially from Witherspoon, Sarsgaard and Omar Metwally. The direction by Gavin Hood was also fantastic. I loved the cinematography and the way that each scene was framed. Overall, this is a massively underrated gem, and yet another political thriller that I seem to be in the minority with in terms of loving it (another one was this year's The Kingdom). I highly recommend it.

A

This was pretty disappointing. It should feel powerful but it never actually comes across that way. Rendition is seemingly more interested in telling a simplistic storyline with very little layered depth. The film doesn't take any chances, and generally fails to interestingly convey the "what ifs" about the complexities of "extreme rendition." Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon's performances are fine, but they both lack energy. Peter Sarsgaard and Alan Arkin do a lot with severely underwritten roles. Meryl Steep is rather good with her also brief running time, but her character is a rather absurd caricature who never comes across as a real person. Rendition is certainly not horrible. It's competently made and contains certain positives. However, the film completely fails to draw the viewer in emotionally. I don't think director Gavin Hood intended his audience to be such detached observers. C+

Count me in as one of the few that love this film. The acting from just about everyone was top notch. The only complaint in that department is Jake Gyllenhaal. He's proven time and again he can be great (Brokeback Mountain, Donnie Darko, etc.), yet he's not phenomenal here, though he's still good. The film goes along at a nice brisk pace and is never boring. I also cared about the characters a ton and that was in part to Reese Witherspoon's great performance. This shows why she won the Oscar back in '05. She's a fantastic actress. This is one of the best films of the year and extremely underrated.

9/10 (A)

It's ridiculous how awful this film is being received. It's so underrated.

Okay film, but I didn't really care in the end. It wasn't effective enough to make the audience care and mostly relied on its cast, which, overall, was nothing extraordinary.

C+

Yikes, what an unfortunate mess of a film. It's almost a PSA on how to NOT make a good movie. Actors are wasted and boxed in to playing cardboard characters who can only convey one emotion. Editing jumps from here to there just when a scene is becoming marginally interesting. Tries both the "multiple storyline" angle and the "time shift" twist that so many indies have used over the past few years, and fails miserably at both. Even the basic premise that someone could be held in some random country just because they RECEIVED mysterious phone calls is really hard to buy. If that were the case then I think 90% of Americans would be in jail considering all the telemarketers that call people repeatedly - hey one may be connected to some random terrorist somewhere!

On the plus side, and this is really the only positive aspect of the film, there is a really good scene between Streep & Sarsgaard somewhere towards the middle. If you ever happen upon this film, just skip to those 5 minutes and forget the rest. Overall - C-

Very thought-provoking movie. The movie is far from perfect but I think it's great that someone wanted to make a movie about that, to let people know that things like this happen (there's a great little documentary on the DVD too) . I just wish the movie would have been better made so that it could get more recognition. B

I thought it was a good insight to Rendition, its a cruel thing and it made its point across

B

B


Rendition was a bit of a surprise to me. While the trailer looked pretty good to me initially, the reviews and some other people's opinions have really thrown me off this one. However, I rented it some days ago and itwasn't half as bad, in my opinion.

As Riggs has said it's far from perfect and I'd go as far as saying that it is a missed opportunity. Butthanks to the capable directing by Gavin Hood took the best out of the fairly confused screenplay. I think the movie's main issue is its ambition to show so much that is wrong about the current terrorism policy and the rendition practice. It tries to tell a lot and therefore fails on several accounts. There are too many characters and plot threads here and a two hours running time is just not enough to cover all of that. Alan Arkin's role is hardly more than an extended cameo and Meryl Streep's appearance is way too short as well. Peter Sarsgaard's character introduction bothered me the most, though, since his character served absolutely no purpose in the end and was simply dropped throughout and never re-appeared. The movie's actual lead is Jake Gyllenhaal and not reese Witherspoon as the marketing might imply. Gyllenhaal does his job competently, but he's not outstanding either.

I think the best turn is delivered by Yigal Naor and the story line of him and his daughter with the terrorist boy is by far the best one of the film and the only one that works very well in brining its message home. It tells you that brutal practices like the extraordinary rendition just serve to breed even more terrorists and regime-haters, turning the whole thing into a nevernding vicious circle. This is why I liked that subplot and it worked much better than the whole confilcted newbie/innocent tortured man/ruthless politicians plot. I must say that the time "twist" towards the end worked perfectly and took me by surprise. Overall, it's a pretty solid film that should be seen by more people. Too bad there wasn't a better screenplay to work with.