Review – Extraordinary Rendition

This production comes across as Rendition with the Hollywood crap replaced with indie crap. We’re spared the spectacle of big stars and slick production values making torture look glamorous. But we end up saddled with muddled writing and over-arty direction. Particularly nettlesome is the decision to ping-pong back and forth in the timeline. On the one hand, I understand that if all the torture sequences are concentrated in one lump that the pacing would become extremely uneven. On the other hand, cutting back and forth between the rendition and the aftermath creates the feeling that the protagonist has a really crummy day job where he’s water-boarded all day and then goes home to have angry scenes with his wife. Overall this picture’s heart is in the right place, but its head doesn’t quite get with the program. Mildly amusing