Metascore

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 60 Ratings

  • Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon
  • Summary: 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) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 34
  2. Negative: 0 out of 34
  1. 100
    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."
  2. 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.
  3. The jumping around is as deft as a hippo in a tutu, and the director, Gavin Hood, never finds a rhythm.
  4. Reviewed by: Angie Errigo
    60
    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.

See all 34 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 41
  2. Negative: 6 out of 41
  1. JimS.
    10
    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.
  2. joelr
    8
    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. Expand
  3. This is the story of the aftermath of a terrorist bombing. Rendition shows what happens behind the scenes of tragedy from six different sides and it's a pretty compelling story. I love how unique and eye opening this film is, however they really dumb it down for you. This should be the kind of movie that makes you think, but instead they kind of explain everything in detail to you from beginning to end. The film was very realistic and clear, that is until the ending. They took this intense, believable, behind the scenes film, and gave it an impossible ending which honestly wound up ruining the whole thing for me. Expand
  4. ChadS.
    4
    Narrative pyrotechnics upstages the story being told. Keep it simple, keep it linear. Serious subject matter deserves a serious movie, and "Rendition", what initially begins as a poor man's "Babel"(which is to say, not bad), quickly degenerates into post-modern film techniques that ill-serves the material. Revisiting the initial terroristic blast shows an appalling lack of maturity since the ka-boom redeux adds nothing to the film's primary storyline. We're impressed by the clever narrative structure. In a film about America's treatment of Islamic detainees, the screenwriter's familiarity with Quentin Tarrantino movies shouldn't be foregrounded in favor of its supposed rhetoric. "Rendition" failed to persuade me that it believes "torture", in the hands of the good guys, the Americans, is indeed torture. The filmmaker would rather entertain us. Anwar's innocence or guilt is beside the point. Nobody deserves to be tortured. "Rendition" fails to make this point crystal clear when Anwar(Omar Metwally) is allowed to return home. Expand

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