Rendition

After a terrorist bombing in Egypt, the CIA’s shadowy process of “extraordinary rendition”—abducting a suspect for interrogation in another country where they are less fastidious about the rights of the accused—descends on a U.S. resident (Omar Metwally) on his way home from South Africa, leaving his wife (Reese Witherspoon) in the dark as to his whereabouts. Gavin Hood directs for maximum tension, but Kelley Sane’s script, while a cogent political statement, is a limp drama in which too many good actors (Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard, Alan Arkin, J.K. Simmons, etc.) get not enough screen time. A subplot involving two Egyptian youths (Zineb Oukach, Moa Khouas) is earnest but uninteresting, and the way it’s resolved is a superfluous trick that doesn’t hold up to close examination.