Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
49
2012
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
70
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
52
Blind Side
47
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
41
G-Force
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
28
Pandorum
58
Pirate Radio
39
Planet 51
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
46
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
39
Adventures of Power
66
Afterschool
73
Amreeka
49
Antichrist
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
71
Big Fan
65
Black Dynamite
76
Bliss
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
76
Broken Embraces
70
Bronson
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
60
Collapse
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
53
Dare
50
Defamation
67
Departures
70
Earth Days
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
88
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
31
Fix
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
xx
From Mexico with Love
28
Gentlemen Broncos
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
63
Horse Boy, The
74
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
43
Little Traitor, The
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
46
Love Hurts
84
Maid, The![]()
45
Mammoth
75
Messenger, The
55
Missing Person, The
59
More Than a Game
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
48
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
26
Oh My God
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Red Cliff
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
65
Skin
41
Splinterheads
42
Staten Island
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
58
Storm
82
Sun, The![]()
49
Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73
That Evening Sun
61
Trucker
49
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
45
Uncertainty
67
Visual Acoustics
32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Rendition

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 53 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Kelley Sane
Directed by: Gavin Hood
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 19, 2007
DVD: February 19, 2008
Running Time: 120 minutes, Color
Origin: USA / South Africa
Summary
RATING: R for torture/violence and language
Starring Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, and Peter Sarsgaard
When an Egyptian-born chemical engineer disappears on a flight from South Africa to Washington, his American wife desperately tries to track him down. Meanwhile, a CIA analyst at a secret detention facility outside the U.S. is forced to question his assignment as he becomes party to the man's unorthodox interrogation. (New Line Cinema)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Tsotsi
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Rendition is valuable and rare. As I wrote from Toronto: "It is a movie about the theory and practice of two things: torture and personal responsibility. And it is wise about what is right, and what is wrong."
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
About two-thirds of the way through, Rendition takes a bad turn and sells out most of what made it worth watching in the first place. Witherspoon is given little to do except look weepy, Freeman's change of heart is Q.E.D., and the radical Islamist subplot overwhelms the action, which becomes so confusingly structured that I thought the projectionist had misplaced a reel.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
There are some problems with the pacing, but this topical thriller about CIA-sanctioned torture is one of the most important "message" movies of the year.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
A rarity – a political film that delivers its timely message with a cinematic punch and no undue speechifying.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
A maddening film, maddening in a good way, but maddening nonetheless.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Occasionally a movie's subject outweighs any aesthetic flaws, as it does in this unsettling thriller about the extraordinary rendition of terror suspects.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The movie Rendition asks, admittedly in a one-sided way, whether the ends justify these means.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
While the ingredients are there to make a tense and compelling post-9/11 thriller, Rendition falls flat.
Read Full Review >Empire Angie Errigo
Disappointingly dull given the explosive subject matter, this at least attempts to get a message into the mainstream. An extra star for effort rather than execution.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
The jumping around is as deft as a hippo in a tutu, and the director, Gavin Hood, never finds a rhythm.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
Rendition offers few surprises, and it tips its hand too soon and too predictably to do much more than goose your weary outrage.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Rendition certainly makes the case that torture, whatever name it goes under, is indefensible, yet one can agree with that view entirely and still feel that the movie is just a borderline exploitation of what anyone who reads the papers already knows.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
The movie is not exciting, original or instructive enough to justify the unpleasant experience.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
Manages to take an urgent, important topic and turn it into standard Hollywood melodrama. What a waste.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
A well-meaning, honorable movie. Which is not to say that it is a very good one.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
Forget the thin characters and showoffy temporal structure. Rendition's worst flaw is its political deck-stacking.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Reese Witherspoon paces and cries through Rendition in a performance that does as much a disservice to her talent as the movie does to the issues it raises.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Rendition tackles the concern in a heavy-handed thriller with simplistic characters and manipulative story lines.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
Rendition has the depth of a bumper sticker without the brevity.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Intelligent and well-meaning, Rendition is nevertheless an oversimplified and uneven attempt to arouse righteous indignation among its viewers.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
In Rendition Gyllenhaal is supposed to be the smartest one in the room, yet he’s essentially just a good-looking plodder. And despite its whirligig story machinations, so is Rendition.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
What a cast, indeed. And what a bust as persuasive drama.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
With a cast this stacked, the performances are predictably strong (particularly from Sarsgaard, whose slow-burning role recalls his work in Shattered Glass), but the first impression they make is the same as the last.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The film's disappointingly black-and-white approach robs characters and situations of badly needed ambiguity.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
Unlike Hood's far more persuasive gangster picture "Tsotsi," Rendition feels generic and lackluster.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
By underplaying the melodrama in the presumed hope of seeming subtle when Kelley Sane’s script is so baldly melodramatic, the “Tsotsi” helmer drains the life out of an obviously explosive subject.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
One reason to see Rendition is for Naor's stunning performance as the torturer who is the one character aware of the political and moral contradictions of what he's doing. Every time he was on screen, he commanded it.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Rendition is a reminder that, in the wrong hands, political outrage can be a slog.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
None of the actors is able to do much with their characters, because they are all playing game pieces on a schematic board. Rendition has passion to spare, but it is saddled with a story designed exclusively to drive home the filmmakers' message.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
If it makes anybody feel better, one character in the picture does point out that the whole "extraordinary rendition" concept originated with Clinton. So there's balance for you.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
If these new, allegedly topical movies are to make us feel anything -- to move us toward any action or even just toward any fresh realization -- they need to at least seem alive on the screen, instead of just courting our polite, measured applause.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Overheated claptrap that takes an issue of vital national importance and turns it into an inept cartoon that emboldens the worst instincts in our national character.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 53 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
John V gave it a1:
One of the worst movies I have seen in a long time. Painful performances by Witherspoon and Streep. I dont know who is worse or more unconvincing Peter S. or Jake G. Jake G's character is totally undeveloped and unconvincing. Peter S's character is laughable. Walks right up to a CIA chief at a cocktail party and threatens her. Hes an adviser to a Senator! And she discusses it with him. Give me a F-ing break. Subject matter deserves a more serious movie. Total crap.
joel r gave it an8:
Good movie. slow paced, but sometimes you have to do that to build a story. i'd guess that this movie was hated by bush apologists, but hey, that 8 years of torture is almost over.
Jim S. gave it a10:
Nothing wrong with it... did what it wanted to do adequately, and it was a good point making exercise. Would like to know their sources for the plot.
S M gave it a10:
AWESOME!!! One of the few movies in which every actor/actress did his/her BEST. Music tracks were perfect. And after all, the story was fairly close to the truth.
Aibar A. gave it a10:
True...everything felt so true..n at some level it probably was...Many lives have been destroyed by this process of extraordinary rendition...the misuse of the law has made many innocent suffer...Brilliant piece of work...outstanding acting.
Tom B. gave it a5:
I didn't mind it until the director had to butcher all conventions for the sake of "surprising" the viewer. If the plot isn't difficult to understand, don't arbitrarily make it more contrived.
Sam S. gave it a9:
I can only think most of the reviewers saw a different film. Not much that is hard to believe - Washington cynicism, flagrantly illegal detention, torture, - does the ends justify the means? This stuff happens only worse insofar as these detentions are for months not the week depicted in the movie. Brutal thought it was it did display both sides of the debate, but ultimately the corrupting and corrosive nature of excessive power are unmistakable. The movie is well acted, atmospheric,and tense. One might argue there is a twist that is unnecessarily clever, but it does increase the tension. Reese Witherspoon is the least convincing element, somewhat unidimensional, but the movie has a lot to get through. This is a movie about a complex problem, which it necessarily oversimplifies, but still a topic that shames every American. A good movie.
