Extraordinary rendition is serious business, and unfortunately, the U.S government does it.

I respect the intention of this film, but I would recommend researching the topic rather than watching Meryl Streep strutting around like a big movie star. I guess it's just me, but I have never bought her in any role she ever played. I can't explain it. Like one professional critic wrote, you're not looking at a character; you're looking at Meryl Streep playing a character.

The droning middle eastern soundtrack is annoying.

I just thought this film was silly and simplistic. Maybe I was not in a receptive mood....I just hate Hollywood interpretations of real world issues.

Rendition (2007). Jake Gyllenhal, Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, and Omar Metwally. Arab American husband accepts invite to speak intellectually in Arab nation. US Intelligence screws up, labels him Al Qaeda, and renditions him. (Rendition: sending criminal or terrorist suspect covertly to be interrogated in a country w/ less rigorous regulations for the humane treatment of prisoners. Basically, torture). His wife freaks out because ppl are saying he wasn't on his flight. The rest of the movie is what happens to him and how he gets back. Based on a true story. ⭐️️⭐️️⭐️️⭐️️⭐️️

This is a very compelling story with some exceptional performances. The clear political message is that the CIA does horrific things to innocent people in the name of national security. Perhaps they do.

But in this case, an innocent American citizen with a family is abducted by the CIA and horribly tortured. He is eventually released by CIA agent Jake Gyllenhaal who suddenly wakes up to just how wrong this is and notifies the media. But what was the CIA's plan for their captive? Did they think they could torture him into submission and then just lock him up without without a public trial or the media finding out what they had done?

I see that this film has received mixed reviews on Amazon. I thought it was excellent. I was completely absorbed in the two storylines and caught up in the very human dramas well portrayed by an all star cast. Jake Gyllanhall and Peter Sarsgaard are good in everything, Alan Arkin and JK Simmons excel in their small roles, Meryl Streep is appropriately cold and imperious as a high level CIA chief and Reese Witherspoon is okay in her role as a stereotypical wife and mother. I was not familiar with the foreign actors, but they were good in their roles as well. Rendition shows how easy it is to misuse government powers and how unreliable information extracted by torture is. You'd think we'd have learned by now that we only create more enemies when we use such methods and so indiscriminately. Recommended.

Boring predictable abnoxious . Bad Bad Bad CIA, poor innocent tortured victim of injustice who happens to be an Egyptian, his conviently pregnant wife and of course a good hero who saves a day! Two hours of my life I'll never get back will best describe it

A spellbinding, terrifying movie very well produced directed and acted! Couldn't take it all in first time. Watched it again next day. Not for the faint of heart or those who cover their eyes in times of stress. You'll miss major portions of this movie. An eye opener raising far more questions than answers. For the best experience, suggest you read the back blurb and watch all additional materials for the fullest experience.

I love political thrillers but this turned out not to be very political and certainly not thrilling at all. Basically, it was a real bore. I only watched it until the end because I had already paid to rent it. Had I but known.

Reese Witherspoon's character, Isabella, is married to an Egyptian who's been in America for over half of his life and who has a green card. They have one little boy and another child on the way. He is snatched by the CIA on his way home from a business trip. His supposed crime is that his cell phone has been getting calls from a known terrorist who organized a suicide bombing in a "North African" country a few days before.

The question of those calls is never definitively answered in the film. We see the husband get one call from a number he doesn't know and he calls his wife, thinking it was her. First of all, are we supposed to believe a chemical engineer doesn't know how to block a number on his phone? Also, if he never answers these calls, it makes the CIA's evidence look even more flimsy. It never seems to occur to these dullards that this man is being set up so they will spend their energy on him and ignore the real members of the terrorist cell.

The husband is taken to an unnamed "North African" country, stripped of his clothes and thrown into a tight cell. He continued protestations of innocence just get him harsher and harsher treatment. It goes from beating to water boarding to electric shocks. It's graphic but I felt removed from it, somehow. I had to ask myself if it was partly because this character was everything I'm not: Muslim and Egyptian and male. I, as a Christian, American female have nothing in common with him except basic humanity. Yet, I wasn't that horrified or moved. Maybe it's me, maybe it's the filmmaking, maybe it's because I knew, deep down, a movie wouldn't kill Reese Witherspoon's husband. I don't know.

This movie is packed with stars who are given basically nothing to do. The roles played by J.K. Simmons, Jake Gynlenhall and Meryl Streep could have been played by unknowns. They didn't really bring anything to the table and this is the first film I think Streep has been actually bad in since "Death Becomes Her".

Reese Witherspoon's character annoyed me -- as her characters usually do. She's supposed to be about eight months pregnant but her fake belly is the only indication. No swollen fingers, no rounded face. She's even wearing heels. She wants an ex-boyfriend she dumped to stick his neck out to find her husband rather than contact the husband's company, which might have some clout, or contact a lawyer. All she does is waddle around and complain. Then, there is some screaming and you wish someone would throw a bag over her head.

There's a subplot involving two young people in that unnamed North African country and, while well-acted, is not necessary to the film.

Anyone who isn't a super Witherspoon fan should pass on this. It wasn't worth the $2.99 I spent.

I really liked this movie when it first came out, but had forgotten about a key plot complication that pushes this movie over the edge from “good” to “great”. IMHO a truly great and under-appreciated movie. If you enjoy this genre, it’s a must-watch.