Review of the film "Rendition "

Rendition (2007)

Director: Gavin Hood

Genre: Thriller

Movie Type: Political Thriller

Themes: Terrorism, Crisis of Conscience

Lead actors: Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Alan Arkin, and Peter Sarsgaard

Release Year: 2007

Country: US

Run Time: 122 minutes

MPAA Rating: R

Plot:

The director of the Academy Award-winning 2006 crime drama Tsotsi returns to the helm with this tale of a Middle East CIA operative who begins to have doubts about his latest assignment after witnessing the interrogation of a suspected suicide bomber by secret police. When Egyptian-born chemical engineer Anwar El-Ibrahimi mysteriously vanished on a routine flight from South Africa to Washington, his wife, Isabella, embarks on a frantic international search for her missing husband. At the same time, a CIA analyst arrives at a clandestine detention facility outside of United States. As the interrogation of El-Ibrahimi gets under way, the CIA analyst is profoundly shaken by the unorthodox methods used by the man’s captors, and quickly begins to reevaluate his assignment.

Main characters:

Douglas Freeman – A CIA analyst

Isabella El-Ibrahimi – a pregnant wife of Anwar El-Ibrahimi

Senator Hawkins – a boss of Alan Smith

Alan Smith – a friend of Isabella and Anwar El-Ibrahimi who works for Senator Hawkins

Anwar El-Ibrahimi – an Egyptian-born chemical engineer

Abasi Fawal - a high-ranking police official

Khalid – a terrorist and a boyfriend of Fatima

Fatima – a daughter of Abasi Fawal

Corrine Whitman – a CIA hotshot and a boss of Douglas Freeman

Direction:

Personally I think the director of the film – Gavin Hood has chosen a specific way, I would say a very specific way, to tell the story. It’s not new for the cinematograph, but it’s a modern way to viewers to see films. I meant that the whole movie is based on flashbacks, which help us to determine what a certain hero of the film thought thinks and will think.

Actually I’ve never seen other movies, directed by the same person, that’s why I can’t compare them. But I’d like to say, that to my mind it’s a good serious film. You should be a brave director to make such a movie.

Writing:

I dare say it seems to me very inventive and unpredictable. I can’t imagine what will happen next second. It can be explained because of flashbacks. They usually appear in a moment when you don’t wait them.

The words of all characters look very credible to me, as each personage illustrates an idea, proved by his/ her words in which he/she believes.

But words also are nothing without emotions. You can control your tongue, but you have to be a professional secret agent to control your body-language. It’s seen especially from the behavior of the suspect – Anwar El-Ibrahimi.

Editing: Speaking about editing I have to say that the movie is choppy, with the help of flashbacks. Peaceful scenes are changed into scenes with explosion or with picture of inquisition.

The film was made no to amaze us of using of lightning and other ambient effect, but to attract our attention to a certain problem. But at the same time effects have a reasonably good level.

It’s an open secret that today most of movies have computer-generated graphics. So our film isn’t the exception of the rule. But, on the one hand, they don’t look realistic, though on the other hand, they fit in with the rest of the film. I must repeat once again that the scene with the explosion is to be in the film, but its quality is under the big question. In the Kino the accent is given to show emotions but not a beautiful picture.

Costume design: From my point of view the clothing choices fit the style of the movie. They fully show us the poor region Middle East. By the way there is an opposition between ordinary people, their clothes, homes and things and Abasi Fawal and his interior, as he is a wealthy person. They absolutely contribute to the overall tone, rather than digressing from it.

Set design: The setting of the film influences other elements too. For example in prison there is a since of horror, in streets of the Arab world – chaos and in the cabinets in the USA is the stretch atmosphere. In this case there are two parallel lines between societies. I like movies which are filmed in a real place, especially when the location is well-chosen.

Background music: it works with the scenes, making prognoses to the future. It’s not over-used or will be not a film but a musical. It is suspenseful as the genre of the movie is thriller. So in this film I like music very much. It works well with all over named aspects.

As for me, I like this movie. It impressed me greatly. I didn’t expect that the final scene of the film would me that one. It’s extraordinary. By the way there are lots of big problems, which are hidden in the film.

One of them is that if you are under torture you can say what they want to hear, even if you don’t do so.

The other one is that it can be when a person, a member of the big system, rolled by the government, goes against it, because of his believes.

All in all the film is great. I like it very much. It will be better to make more such films with such ideas, but they won’t be popular as they are against the ideology of the country.