RenditionMovie Reviews

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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 55 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
16 Iffy for 16+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    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." Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    A maddening film, maddening in a good way, but maddening nonetheless. Read full review

  • 63
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    While the ingredients are there to make a tense and compelling post-9/11 thriller, Rendition falls flat. Read full review

  • 60
    Los Angeles Times | Carina Chocano

    Rendition offers few surprises, and it tips its hand too soon and too predictably to do much more than goose your weary outrage. Read full review

  • 58
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Rendition certainly makes the case that torture, whatever name it goes under, is indefensible, yet one can agree with that view entirely and still feel that the movie is just a borderline exploitation of what anyone who reads the papers already knows. Read full review

  • 50
    Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

    Reese Witherspoon paces and cries through Rendition in a performance that does as much a disservice to her talent as the movie does to the issues it raises. Read full review

  • 50
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    Rendition tackles the concern in a heavy-handed thriller with simplistic characters and manipulative story lines. Read full review

  • 50
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    What a cast, indeed. And what a bust as persuasive drama. Read full review

  • 50
    Variety | Todd McCarthy

    By underplaying the melodrama in the presumed hope of seeming subtle when Kelley Sane's script is so baldly melodramatic, the "Tsotsi" helmer drains the life out of an obviously explosive subject. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times | A.O. Scott

    A well-meaning, honorable movie. Which is not to say that it is a very good one. Read full review

View more reviews for Rendition on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+ Over-simplified drama takes hard look at torture.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this heavy drama isn't for kids, even though it stars tween/teen favorites Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal. Not only does it deal with the many complicated political and cultural issues surrounding torture, but the dialogue -- which is focused on policy and intrigue -- will likely bore younger viewers. There's also plenty of violence, including explosions, shooting, and, yes, torture (there are difficult images of the victim's pain and the aggressor's visceral calculations). The torture victim appears naked in a small, dank cell, mostly in shadow. Other scenes show upset victims and negotiators; particularly wrenching is a young wife's anguished pleading that a CIA officer answer questions about her missing husband. Language includes some uses of "f--k" and other minor profanity.
  • Families can talk about how the movie portrays the practice of torture. As viewers sort out their own feelings about what he goes through, does it matter whether Anwar is guilty or innocent? How is watching torture different than seeing other types of media violence? Should anti-torture laws ever be sacrificed for security?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Both "terrorists" and U.S. agents use underhanded tactics; parents and children are at odds.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Brutal violence throughout, including torture, as well as explosions in crowded streets. An early scene shows a suicide bombing in North Africa in which a CIA agent dies in Douglas' lap (blood everywhere). Anwar is tortured repeatedly -- he's tied to a chair, beaten, choked, dragged, kicked, and electrified. Photos of martyrs show maimed bodies. In a tense, lengthy scene, Fatima runs to stop Khalid's suicide mission, with pounding percussion and fast cutting. A bombing near the end is catastrophic, killing multiple people and leaving others traumatized and bloody.
  • sex false0 Sex: Khalid and Fatima kiss a couple of times. Anwar appears naked in several scenes, usually shadowed; his nakedness (which is non-sexual) is a sign of his vulnerability (his body is bloodied and bruised from torture).
  • language false5 Language: Several uses of "f--k," plus occasional other profanity, like "hell," "son of a bitch," and "goddammit."
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Sony TV, Washington Post.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Several characters smoke cigarettes and cigars. Douglas drinks hard liquor to show despair; he also goes to a bar where he smokes an opium-like drug from a water pipe. Douglas appears drunk and upset.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

1.5

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