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Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Director Hood did the satisfying South African Oscar winner Tsotsi, and he wrangles Rendition's multiple storylines with skill. He cannot elevate the writing, however. Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Rendition has multiple crisscrossing plots, a cliff-hanger climax, and a strong current of hope -- that an individual's conscience can triumph over careerism and bureaucratic moral blindness. Read more
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Occasionally a movie's subject outweighs any aesthetic flaws, as it does in this unsettling thriller about the extraordinary rendition of terror suspects. Read more
John Hartl, Seattle Times: What finally gives Rendition its headlong narrative momentum is the sense that we're rarely certain what argument the filmmakers are endorsing. Read more
Scott Tobias, AV Club: Relevancy isn't the only barometer worth reading here, especially since it's one of the few elements the film has going for it. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Rendition is a reminder that, in the wrong hands, political outrage can be a slog. Read more
Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: A pat and generic, if serviceable, political thriller. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Scenes of powerful realism alternate with melodrama. Read more
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: It raises worthwhile quandaries and delivers flashes of acting prowess -- from Streep in particular. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: Rendition succumbs to a fatal imbalance brought on by terminal star power. Read more
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Rendition makes the case that torture, whatever name it goes under, is indefensible, yet one can agree with that view entirely and still feel that the movie is just a borderline exploitation of what anyone who reads the papers already knows. Read more
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: A movie whose hot-button political issues already seem too warmed and worried over. Read more
Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: It's all too simplistic to really engage the deeply complex dilemma it seeks to pass judgment on. Read more
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Don't imagine that you'll find much beyond lip service to serious public debate in this slick thriller. Read more
Jan Stuart, Newsday: Reduces issues of burning domestic urgency to a rubble of burnt melodrama. Read more
David Ansen, Newsweek: Rendition manages to take an urgent, important topic and turn it into standard Hollywood melodrama. What a waste. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Rendition has been made with an awful lot of volume and outrage, but you wish it had some intellect and artistry, too. Read more
Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: [Hood] can be accused of one-siding the debate over interrogation tactics like water-boarding and electrocution. But since when do movies have to be fair and balanced? Read more
Kyle Smith, New York Post: Morose instead of outraged and static instead of penetrating. Read more
Rex Reed, New York Observer: Hot off the headlines, this is one timely thriller that delivers its message with a huge punch and no heavy speechifying. Read more
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Everything is black and white here, a tremendous disservice considering the complexity of the issue. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Give us a genuine dilemma, put us on the spot. Rendition -- though it is a very good, challenging film that will have you thinking and talking afterward -- doesn't. Read more
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Hood squanders the film's considerable starpower by failing to elicit sharp performances from his marquee names. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: We are ambushed by a simplistic storyline that's more interested in sermonizing and demonizing than existing in the real world where things aren't as clear-cut as the movie would like us to believe. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: What the film documents is that we have lost faith in due process and the rule of law, and have forfeited the moral high ground. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: If these new, allegedly topical movies are to make us feel anything -- to move us toward any action or even just toward any fresh realization -- they need to at least seem alive on the screen, instead of just courting our polite, measured applause. Read more
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: That it's embarrassingly plausible, that it depicts things that have happened and that are probably still happening, is enough to make Americans sick to their stomach. Read more
Dana Stevens, Slate: Rendition's worst flaw is its political deck-stacking, with its willingness to win the viewer's sympathy by showcasing the least defensible instance of extraordinary rendition imaginable. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: At every turn the screenplay turns geopolitics into Lifetime Channel pablum. Read more
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Hot off the headlines and onto the screen, this is a rarity -- a political film that delivers its timely message with a cinematic punch and no undue speechifying. Read more
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: It's one thing for a thriller to be timely, quite another for it to function as Rendition does, a gripping piece of entertainment with a clear head on its shoulders. Read more
Trevor Johnston, Time Out: A worthwhile but somewhat underwhelming effort, perhaps too level-headed for its own good. Read more
Todd McCarthy, Variety: Even Witherspoon, normally the most spirited of performers who can inject even limited characters and blah scripts with her own spark, can do little but mope around and search for different ways to look worried. Read more
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: As it goes about hitting its predictable marks, including a reassuring burst of moral outrage, Rendition suffers, finally, from not being extraordinary enough. Read more