Rendition (2007)

Lately any time the genre of a movie has the world “Political” in it, one can automatically assume it has a thing or two to say about the so-called War On Terror. So it is with Rendition, a film about a loving husband and father spirited away by The Man because he may or may not have possibly had something to do with a suspected terrorist. I have to say that the movie was a good bit more interesting than I thought it would be. It approaches its subject matter with the understanding that sometimes horrible things must be done to keep even more horrible things from happening to other people. That said, even with its moral compass clearly pointing toward grey, it lacks the teeth to really dig into policy. Rather it's a personal story, a what-if, and for the most part it's quite effective, though far from gripping. It's got a solid cast doing their usual solid acting (Jake Gyllenhaal especially), while the tale tosses in a few unexpected curve balls amid a mostly predictable pile of plot points. It never manages to reach any soaring highs, but for what this film tries to do it succeeds.

7 out of 10.