I remember there were all sort of speculations about the CIA using rendition techniques around the time this was released, and I actually thought it could have been a powerful light to shine on an US government that tended to act with impunity when it suited it - especially if your name didn’t happen to originate in the West. That’s what happens to Egyptian-born engineer “Anwar” (Omar Metwally) who is travelling home to his wife (Reese Witherspoon) in the States when he is “diverted” on the instructions of “Whitman” (Meryl Streep) to a dark and unholy place where he is stripped of his clothes and his dignity, then questioned about a recent bombing atrocity - all under the watchful eye of “Freeman” (Jake Gyllenhaal) who is clearly torn between loyalty to his country and his own sense of human decency. Meantime, as you might expect, the wife of the captive man - completely unaware of his whereabouts, raises the issues with her senator (Alan Arkin) via his aide “Smith” (Peter Sarsgaard) but they seem more preoccupied with the optics of appearing to be on the wrong side of public opinion than they are about finding this man. Now of course there is the slightest of chances that “Anwar” does know something, but it’s about as remote as the source of the Amazon and the question quickly becomes more about the internecine game of political chess being played by all sides in this game with scant regard for a man whom in Metwally is easily the most convincing actor on the screen. To be fair to it, this film does begin quite promisingly with the arbitrary exercise of power making a mockery of any thoughts of democratic oversight, but Gyllenhaal is nowhere near his best and neither is the underused Witherspoon who seems uncertain as to just how she wants to play the part of the terrified, pregnant, wife. It’s conclusion is all a bit rushed, but it does show just how duplicitous and Machiavellian people can be when there are laws both within and outside the law - it's just a shame that wasn’t explored more fully.
