Rendition

The USA PATRIOT Act, commonly known as the PATRIOT Act, is a controversial Act of Congress that U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law on October 26, 2001. The contrived acronym stands for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and ObstructTerrorism Act of 2001.”  (Wikipedia, click the blue for extra information)

Rendition is a very political film, giving a very clear face to the idea, “post-9/11″ acts of the US government.  It does so vividly, lucidly, and ends up being very entertaining as well.  And even though it is more about “extraordinary rendition,” authorized in the 90′s, it still brings home the concept behind the Patriot Act with moral and political meaning.

Starring Omar Metwally, Yigal Naor, Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard, and Alan Arkin, this film has an All-Star cast.  They work so well together.  The ensemble cast has so many moments to shine individually as well as holistically, and the product is a team of artists willing to set aside personality and ego to create a film which highlights some of the most unConstitutional decisions in America’s storied history.


Omar Metwally plays an Egyptian scientist who is abducted by the government and sent to a secret prison (see Abu Ghraib Photos - warning: explicit images) to be tortured on suspicion of involvement in bomb-oriented terrorism.  His wife, Isabella (Witherspoon), does all she can to find out what has happened to him when he doesn’t return home, which is amplified and made more difficult by her being pregnant.  Gyllenhaal plays a CIA agent who has the same reservations about the interrogations at the secret prison as a Senator’s (Arkin’s) assistant (Sarsgaard) who is trying to help Isabella find her husband, albeit from a different location.  And Meryl Streep plays the face of the US government, named Corrine Whitman, a woman whose belief in stopping terror is a conviction that will not be broken by sentimentality or the personal efforts of Senators.


The direction is simple and unglorified, which aids the films already deeply poignant message.  It needs no help.  The plot is directed at revealing the awful effects of post-9/11 government, and it does so quite well.  I won’t reveal the ending here, but I will say that I hope that some of the people involved in the proceedings of the government post-9/11 are as human as Sarsgaard and Gyllenhaal.  The script is genuinely well written; a few lines here and there might have been tweaked, but the script overall is so good, you won’t notice them.  The score is the same: on the whole, it is wonderful and well executed, a nice blending of contemporary American scores and the themes of Middle Eastern music one might expect.  The suspense is built well, and the script and score work hand in hand for the entire film.  Each character is given a certain amount of importance, and the intertwining of the multiple plot-lines is fairly seamless, and I was never left feeling that the loose-ends needed more tying.  Except at the end.  The end of the movie is satisfying, but a nice denouement might have aided closure with a few of the characters.  This is more of a preference, so I can’t really criticize the film for it.


This movie is two hours long.  It is worth every minute and every cent.  To see a face where the idea of Patriot Act, or post-9/11 politics, or secret prison has been lingering, is not only important, but necessary, in a time when the facts and the media may not be on the same page.  I highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to experience the facets of this new government and spur more personal research and insight into the matter itself.


Rating: 3/4 Stars