Meanwhile, back in North Africa, the police chief, Abasi Fawal (Igal Naor), when he isn't torturing Anwar in a dank, shadowy dungeon, is worrying about his oldest daughter, Fatima (Zineb Oukach). She has been hanging around with Khalid (Moa Khouas), a poor, soulful artist with a sad smile, a motorbike and connections to the terrorists. And Douglas Freeman (Gyllenhaal), a CIA analyst whose Bogart- (or perhaps Clooney-) esque dissolution was interrupted by the bombing, begins to have second thoughts about what Fawal is doing.
Freeman and Fawal conduct an argument about ends and means that is mirrored by the debate between Smith and Corrinne Whitman (Streep), who runs the rendition program with unflappable conviction. The tussle in Washington is more pointed and emphatic - "Americans don't torture," Streep hisses, while Sarsgaard hisses back about due process and the rule of law - but the one in North Africa has a more pungent atmosphere and juicier acting.
Naor, with his shiny head and bushy eyebrows, is as emphatic in his gestures and expressions as an actor in a silent movie, with a gruff, rolling baritone that makes you glad that Rendition isn't one. Gyllenhaal, for his part, tries his hand at minimalism, conveying his character's ethical quandary by moping and mumbling. The two of them are an oddly captivating team.
For her part, Witherspoon retains her stunned, steely resolve until the script calls upon her to start screaming, while Streep savors another chance to embody the chilly self-confidence of power. Oukach and Khouas, as the young, star-crossed lovers, have little to do but regard each other with wounded, wide-eyed longing; this is not a movie with much need for ingenues.
And yes, it could have used more subtlety, a lighter touch, a more disciplined narrative. But all its clumsy efforts are toward an honest and difficult goal, which is to use the resources of mainstream moviemaking to get viewers thinking about a moral crisis that many of us would prefer to ignore. Of course it's disappointing when such efforts don't succeed, but I wouldn't want to live in a country where filmmakers never tried.
RSS