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Rendition
New Line Cinema


7.3

based on 34 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 50 votes
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FILM:

Tsotsi

MPAA 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)

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Kelley Sane
DIRECTED BY:	Gavin Hood
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 19, 2008 Theatrical: October 19, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	120 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA / South Africa

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...

100

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."

TV Guide Ken Fox

Taut, powerfully acted political thriller.

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.

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.

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A maddening film, maddening in a good way, but maddening nonetheless.

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.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The movie Rendition asks, admittedly in a one-sided way, whether the ends justify these means.

USA Today Claudia Puig

While the ingredients are there to make a tense and compelling post-9/11 thriller, Rendition falls flat.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The movie is not exciting, original or instructive enough to justify the unpleasant experience.

Newsweek David Ansen

Manages to take an urgent, important topic and turn it into standard Hollywood melodrama. What a waste.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

A well-meaning, honorable movie. Which is not to say that it is a very good one.

Slate Dana Stevens

Forget the thin characters and showoffy temporal structure. Rendition's worst flaw is its political deck-stacking.

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.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Rendition tackles the concern in a heavy-handed thriller with simplistic characters and manipulative story lines.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Rendition has the depth of a bumper sticker without the brevity.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Intelligent and well-meaning, Rendition is nevertheless an oversimplified and uneven attempt to arouse righteous indignation among its viewers.

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.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

What a cast, indeed. And what a bust as persuasive drama.

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.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The film's disappointingly black-and-white approach robs characters and situations of badly needed ambiguity.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

Unlike Hood's far more persuasive gangster picture "Tsotsi," Rendition feels generic and lackluster.

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.

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.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Painfully boring.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Rendition is a reminder that, in the wrong hands, political outrage can be a slog.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 50 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

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.

Melancholic Alcoholic gave it a7:
Throughout the movie I was thinking, it's nice that they give the torturer a background, but it's kinda not central to a movie called "Rendition" supposedly about how little effective torture is. Then, at the end, you see why, and frankly I'm a bit disgusted and outraged. I mean, nice story technique, but couldn't that've been saved for a movie with more entertainment? It's the wrong sort of complexity for a movie of this kind. A film with a message (no matter how much it is ridiculed today) should be thought provoking and leave us with either some sort of dilemma, or demonstrate how bad the CIA & co fcuked things up. I completely agree with Chad S. We should've seen a movie about how easy it is for the CIA to abuse its power, or how easily they let themselves be fooled. Instead we get some Quinten Tarantino rip off!! The CIA & USA has fcuked up big time with rendition and they should be held responsible To me, this was a movie about someone (Corrine Whithman) doing a really bad job, and not wanting to admit it. Just because her grandkids were having a great old time in London and got threatened, she let a completely innocent man be tortured? Based on the flimsiest of evidence? This man cellphone couldn't have been used to piggyback the terrorist info on? A severe case of underestimating the enemy. Its amazing that with all the availability of high powered rifles in the usa, no-one has taken out one of these.

Zee M gave it a9:
An Incredibly Strong Movie, Heart Pounding and keeps you in your seat for the whole movie, I had to go to the washroom at the theatre about 10 minutes into the movie but I stayed and watched glued to my seat knowing what will happen next.

FGB gave it a7:
Its not a classic but bring a great subject to the foreground.

Jay H. gave it a7:
Well made thriller but not completely convincing. Good performance from Meryl Streep, Jake Gyllenhaal is miscast but he tries. Compelling and always watchable.

Rendition New Line Cinema

Rendition
New Line Cinema