Rendition
So I watched Rendition and have stuck in my head the image of Jake Gyllenhaal without a shirt in the opening scene. Clearly, I am a sick freak.
Not surprisingly, I was unimpressed by the social agenda of the film. I think it could have been spectacular without all the cheesy gimmicks. The wife and mother-in-law have a good relationship, and wife is very pregnant. Cheese. I recorded it because I haven’t got my latest installment of The Wire from Netflix.
And wtf with the family man being the terrorist suspect? You can turn on any documentary and the terrorist profile will be a single male. I think of it like honor among thieves, in the extremist world the suicide bombers bless their mothers with their martyrdom, not their children. The mafia never leave their wives, that sort of logic.
Of course, I could have terrible reading and viewing comprehension. But I don’t think so.
I have great appreciation for the acting talent. Just not the cheese in the script. Could the audience not feel the pain of a single male immigrant, or a couple? Are viewers that stupid? I think I could cry with Reese Witherspoon without the tiny boy and pregnant belly.
Peter Sarsgaard made me think he could be my favorite ex-boyfriend. He’s incredible in that way that Kevin Spacey is incredible because you don’t even know it’s him until you’re looking at the cast list on IMDB. And then you realize you’ve seen him in a half dozen films.
The film does have redeeming qualities. The scenery is terrific. And there are a couple of interesting plot loops. They are not completely surprising in retrospect. But I was enjoying the film during the watching, not over-analyzing, so I got to say a nice little, oooh, at the end.
I’m a practical person. One could rage all day at the injustice and inhumanity of torture. But in my opinion the single best argument against it is that it is ineffective. A tortured person will say anything to make the pain stop. That doesn’t yield good intelligence. That doesn’t mean I think it’s a good idea otherwise. I just choose not to use morality as an argument when there is no telling what sort of moral compass another arguer would have.
But who could regard my opinion. Because stuck in my head instead of the torture, is Gyllenhaal without a shirt.
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