RENDITION

RYAN: “Rendition” is a film that reminds me why I love movies so much. It was that good.

CAROLINE: I liked this movie, but not as much as you did. I think it was sort of a poor man’s “Babel.”

RYAN: I see your point, but this movie did the same thing emotionally that “Babel” did to me. I honestly forgot who I was and where I was whilst watching this film. I was totally swept up into it and emotionally connected and involved.

CAROLINE: There were definitely a few scenes that did that for me. It’s certainly a timely film in that deals with terrorism, but I wasn’t completely sold on Jakey-poo in the lead role of CIA guy.

RYAN: Totally. It didn’t bother me during the film, but now in retrospect I definitely think he was too young and too cute for this role. He wasn’t aggressive enough. But that didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the film.

CAROLINE: Me neither, but I feel like he’s become famous more for being Jake Gyllenhaal than for being an actor, so I was watching him thinking, “Oh there’s Jake Gyllenhaal being a CIA agent.” I didn’t fully buy it, even though his character is admittedly supposed to be a neophyte and new to his position. I just think someone else could have done it better.

RYAN: He’s so pretty though; I just liked looking at him.

CAROLINE: He’s shirtless in his first scene, so enjoy.

RYAN: It’s a sad state of affairs in our world that this film is truly art imitating life in the sense that terrorism is a constant threat. Even though this movie isn’t based on a true story, the events in the film could totally happen any time or anywhere.

CAROLINE: Well, the movie is based on a real practice, extraordinary rendition, which has allegedly been used by the government for years. Basically it means you can take a suspect out of the US, detain them without telling them why and if need be, torture them. And as you can imagine, those scenes in this movie are hard to watch.

RYAN: This just in – torture is really bad.

CAROLINE: It doesn’t look fun. What did we think of Reese?

RYAN: I just love her. We haven’t seen her in anything since “Walk the Line,” and even though this role is a far cry from her bubblegum character in “Legally Blonde,” she definitely has the acting chops to pull it off. And Meryl Streep is so great. Much like how the Wicked Witch of the West is only in “The Wizard of Oz” for about 6 minutes but her impact is so huge, Meryl’s only in this for 10 or 15 minutes but still has that kind of big impact.

CAROLINE: Her character is a little wicked witchy too. She’s the Tilda Swinton in “Michael Clayton” of this movie. And I loved the guy who plays Reese’s husband, Omar Metwally. You’ll recognize him from “Munich.” He has some of the hardest scenes in the movie and he did them really well.

RYAN: He’s also gorgeous and totally deserving of a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. Bottom line?

CAROLINE: I would recommend this film, though if we’re discussing timely war-type movies that are out right now, I think I preferred “The Kingdom.” “Rendition” is kind of like “Babel” in that it has 3 different plots going on in different countries, but it’s not as intricate or as well done. It’s good but I didn’t think it was great.

RYAN: I loved this film and would definitely recommend it. It has a fabulous, unique twist toward the end and I was completely entertained start to finish.