Rendition

Rendition (Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, Peter Sarsgaard, Omar Metwally) – Hitting close to home, this political drama seeks to reveal the federal government’s post-911 alleged practice of “kidnapping” Americans of Middle Eastern descent who might have connections to terrorists.  Omar Metwally is the unsung star of this film as the young businessman named Anwar El-Ibrahimi, a native of Egypt, who is abducted after he arrives back in the U.S. from a business trip to South Africa.  His wife, capably played by a more mature Reese Witherspoon, pulls out the stops to find out what happened to her husband, enlisting the assistance of an ex-boyfriend (played by the talented and under-estimated Peter Sarsgaard), a top aide to a powerful U.S. Senator (portrayed by veteran Alan Arkin).  Not that is helps since Anwar is being tortured by a ruthless U.S. operative under the watchful eye and squeamish stomach of young CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal).  Multiple parallel stories make the movie riveting as Director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi) paces the story well toward somewhat inevitable conclusions.  Not all of the reviews of this film have been positive perhaps because it’s a little preachy and stereotypes characters like the CIA director Corrine Whitman (played by Meryl Streep for some reason I can’t figure out).  But it is not a bad film, even if the torture scenes are a bit graphic.