---
title: "Rendition"
year: 2007
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/rendition"
fi1m_id: "rendition"
imdb_id: "tt0804522"
tmdb_id: 5125
wikidata_id: "Q498797"
fi1m_score: 54
critics_score: 55
critics_reviews: 10
published: "2026-10-11T23:26:40.509459+00:00"
updated: "2026-10-11T23:26:41.028206+00:00"
region: "IT"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Rendition (2007)

Directed by Gavin Hood · 2h 00m · MiC T · Drama, Thriller

## Identity

Rendition

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/rendition
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** rendition
- **IMDb ID:** tt0804522
- **TMDB ID:** 5125
- **Wikidata ID:** Q498797
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804522/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/5125, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q498797

**Fi1m score: 54** · Critics 55 from 10 reviews

*In a sentence:* Meryl Streep approves a man’s torture over the phone and the film spends two hours deciding how it feels about that

> Gavin Hood’s thriller about extraordinary rendition is well cast, carefully made and so anxious to be fair to everyone that it ends up gripping no one. Omar Metwally, strapped to a chair, is the only person whose predicament we felt in the body.

## Synopsis

Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), husband of Isabella (Reese Witherspoon), boards a flight home and never arrives. The airline says he was never aboard. CIA official Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep) has ordered him flown to an unnamed North African country, where interrogator Abasi Fawal (Yigal Naor) wants to know why a terrorist’s phone called Anwar’s mobile. A suicide bomb has gone off in Fawal’s city, and CIA analyst Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal) is sent to watch the questioning. Isabella goes to Washington to find her husband and turns to an old boyfriend, Alan Smith (Peter Sarsgaard), an aide to Senator Hawkins (Alan Arkin). Fawal’s daughter Fatima (Zineb Oukach) is seeing a boy her father would not approve of.

## Review

Gavin Hood follows *Tsotsi* (2005), a small film about one boy in one township, with a large one that runs across three countries and four storylines, and the move does not suit him. *Rendition* takes a real and ugly practice, the seizing of a suspect and his delivery to a country where the questioning is done with electricity and water, and builds a thriller around it from Kelley Sane’s script. It is serious, decently acted and handsomely shot. It is also slow, and spread so thin that the one thing it is about keeps slipping out of view.

The strand that works is the one in the concrete cell. Omar Metwally plays Anwar El-Ibrahimi as a reasonable man who keeps expecting reason to be the way out, and the moment he understands it is not, his face does something we have not forgotten. The first time Fawal’s men tip his chair back and pour, we were sickened, properly, in the stomach, and we were grateful that Hood holds the shot long enough for the sickness to arrive. Then the film cuts to Washington and a corridor and a phone call, and the sickness goes, and it does not come back. That pattern repeats. Every time the chair and the water get at us the film leaves them.

Washington is where the talking is. Meryl Streep gives Corrine Whitman a soft voice and an unbreakable calm, and her best scene is a short one in which she explains to a junior man why none of this will ever reach a courtroom. Alan Arkin’s Senator Hawkins has two scenes and uses them to be tired. Peter Sarsgaard’s Alan Smith is the only person in the capital with a decision to make, whether to help a woman he once loved at the cost of a career he has only just built, and Sarsgaard plays the cowardice and the decency as the same thing. Reese Witherspoon is given a corridor to wait in and a lot of doors to be shown out of, and she does what can be done with that.

Jake Gyllenhaal has the harder problem. Douglas Freeman is an analyst who has never seen a man hurt for information and is sent to watch it done, and the script’s idea of a conscience forming is to have him drink, stare and lecture a man who does this for a living. Gyllenhaal plays it very quiet, which is a fair choice, but the writing never gives the quiet anything to turn into. When he finally acts, we believed the act and not the man.

The surprise is the fourth strand, the one the film seems least interested in. Zineb Oukach’s Fatima and Moa Khouas’s Khalid are two teenagers in a city full of police, and their scenes have a nervousness and a heat the American ones never find. Yigal Naor’s Fawal, cruel in the cell and fond at his dinner table, is the film’s best idea about how this work is done by ordinary men. The ending turns on a trick of structure that we will not describe, and which most critics have either admired or resented; we thought it clever and felt it took the place of a conclusion the film had not earned.

Dion Beebe shoots Washington in grey-blue and the North African city in dusty amber, and the contrast is doing the arguing the script should be doing. Barry Robison’s cell is bare concrete and a single chair, and it is the only set in the film we could draw from memory. Megan Gill cuts between the four stories at an even pace, so that nothing is allowed to build before it is interrupted. Paul Hepker and Mark Kilian keep a low drone under the chair and the water and let the strings rise in the capital, and we would have had it the other way round. Michael Wilkinson puts Streep in pearls and Metwally in a hood, which is the film in one costume change.

It runs 120 minutes and carries a 15. Watch it with the sound a notch up for the scenes in the cell and be patient with the rest. The subject deserves this much attention and rather more anger than it gets.

*Fi1m score 54, published 11 October 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics agree that Rendition has chosen a subject worth the trouble: extraordinary rendition and the intersecting lives of those caught up in it. Even the cooler reviews grant that the film is earnest and well intentioned, and the warmer ones call it powerful and provocative, with the murky politics of the war on terror giving the drama a convincing backdrop. Praise for the acting settles on Jake Gyllenhaal, whom Eye for Film singles out as well cast, and Total Film finds the performances convincing and the final turn earned.

The reservations are about the drama rather than the subject. The commonest complaint is flatness: Empire says the slick visuals cannot make the separate storylines cohere, and Variety goes further, calling the film dull and faulting low-key performances from Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon. The New York Times finds it dramatically unconvincing, and even the sympathetic Eye for Film says the subplot slows the pace and the ending strains belief. The spread is wide, with the middle settling on three stars.

## Straight answers

**Is Rendition worth watching?**

*Rendition* is a serious, well-acted thriller about extraordinary rendition that spreads itself across four storylines and grips in only one of them, and we scored it 54. The scenes in the concrete cell with Omar Metwally are sickening in the right way; the Washington talking around them is slow and careful to a fault. Worth it for the interested, not for anyone wanting a thriller that moves.

**How long is Rendition, and what is it rated?**

*Rendition* runs 2h 00m and is rated T by the MiC in Italy. It is a drama and thriller film.

**Where can I watch Rendition in Italy?**

*Rendition* is not on any streaming or rental service in Italy at the moment. It is available in 14 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is Rendition, and is it suitable for children?**

*Rendition* carries a UK 15 certificate and a US R, and it is not for children. The violence is torture rather than action: a man strapped to a chair, tipped back and doused, with electricity implied, and Hood holds the shots long enough to turn the stomach. Teenagers of 15 and over who can take that will find the rest is mostly adults talking in corridors.

**What should I watch after Rendition?**

After *Rendition*, try [*The Battle of Algiers*](https://film.one/film/the-battle-of-algiers) (1966, Fi1m 93): Pontecorvo shows torture as policy, without speeches, and it still leaves us shaken. Then [*Syriana*](https://film.one/film/syriana) (2005, Fi1m 72): Another multi-strand political thriller, this one willing to leave you confused on purpose; and [*Hunger*](https://film.one/film/hunger) (2008, Fi1m 86): One prison, one body, and McQueen never cuts away when it hurts.

### Reviews we read (10)

- **Total Film**, Total Film (4/5): The review calls the film powerful and politically challenging. It praises the convincing performances and a final twist that feels narratively earned. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/rendition-review/)
- **Screen Daily** (70/100, inferred): The review presents the film as smart and provocative. It praises the war on terror’s murky complexities as a compelling backdrop. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/rendition/4034486.article)
- **RogerEbert.com** (64/100, inferred): The page displays a browser verification challenge rather than the review. The critic’s verdict and any specific praise or complaint cannot be verified. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rendition-2007)
- **The Hollywood Reporter** (64/100, inferred): The available text provides no critic’s verdict. It identifies the film’s focus as torture in the war against terrorism but offers no specific praise or complaint. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/rendition-review-149718/)
- **Radio Times**, Dave Aldridge (3/5): The review presents the film as a politically charged thriller, earning a three-star rating. It singles out the subject of extraordinary rendition and the intersecting stories of those caught up in it. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-qymwlp/rendition/)
- **Time Out**, Trevor Johnston (3/5): The printed 3/5 rating indicates a measured, middling verdict. The review text is unavailable, so its specific praise or complaint cannot be established. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/rendition)
- **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (40/100, inferred): The review finds the film earnest but dramatically unconvincing. It criticizes the way the story handles its serious subject matter. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/movies/19rend.html)
- **Empire**, Angie Errigo (30/100, inferred): Errigo finds the film disappointingly flat despite its serious subject and well-intentioned message. She singles out the slick visuals, while saying they fail to make the separate storylines cohere. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/rendition-review/)
- **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (20/100, inferred): McCarthy finds the film dull and says its restrained melodrama drains an explosive subject of life. He particularly criticizes the opaque, low-key performances and lack of spark from Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon. [Read](https://variety.com/2007/film/awards/rendition-1200556544/)
- **Eye for Film**, Val Kermode (65/100, inferred): Kermode finds the film powerful and gripping, though its subplot slows the pace and the ending strains credibility. She praises Jake Gyllenhaal’s casting and says the subject deserves wider attention. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/rendition-film-review-by-val-kermode)

## Details

- **Director:** Gavin Hood
- **Director:** Gavin Hood
- **Writer:** Kelley Sane
- **Cinematography:** Dion Beebe
- **Editor:** Megan Gill
- **Music:** Paul Hepker, Mark Kilian
- **Production design:** Barry Robison
- **Costume design:** Michael Wilkinson
- **Producer:** Steve Golin, David Kanter, Mark Martin
- **Cast:** Reese Witherspoon as Isabella Fields El-Ibrahimi; Jake Gyllenhaal as Douglas Freeman; Meryl Streep as Corrine Whitman; Alan Arkin as Senator Hawkins; Peter Sarsgaard as Alan Smith; Omar Metwally as Anwar El-Ibrahimi; Yigal Naor as Abasi Fawal; Hadar Ratzon Rotem as Safiya
- **Runtime:** 2h 00m
- **Certificate (MiC):** T
- **Release (Italy):** 29 February 2008
- **Genres:** Drama, Thriller
- **Budget:** $28 million
- **Box office:** $25 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGE35fYuV1A

## Where to watch in Italy

Not streaming, renting or buying in Italy at the last check.

Also available in: AR, BR, CA, CL, CO, DE, EC, GB, MX, PA, PE, RO, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *The Battle of Algiers* (1966), Fi1m 93: Pontecorvo shows torture as policy, without speeches, and it still leaves us shaken — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-battle-of-algiers.md)
- *Syriana* (2005), Fi1m 72: Another multi-strand political thriller, this one willing to leave you confused on purpose — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/syriana.md)
- *Hunger* (2008), Fi1m 86: One prison, one body, and McQueen never cuts away when it hurts — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/hunger.md)
- *The Lives of Others* (2006), Fi1m 84: A man paid to listen slowly grows a conscience, and the script earns every step — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-lives-of-others.md)
- *Omar* (2013): Abu-Assad’s West Bank thriller finds the heat between informer, lover and interrogator

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/rendition