The Lincoln Log

Starring elite actors and actresses such as Brokeback Mountain’s Jake Gyllenhaal, Walk the Line’s Reese Witherspoon, Devil Wears Prada’s Meryl Streep, and Little Miss Sunshine’s Alan Arkin, Rendition creates a thrilling environment, but has its downs with a few yawns and disappointments. Though the trailer puts up an interesting plot, it’s not what the movie was mainly about.

Rendition’s plot is about the government moving an American citizen illegally to another country in order to torture him. They suspect that Anwar, played by Arkin, is a terrorist and try to obtain information out of him. Rendition focuses on two different stories. One story is of Isabella El-Ibrahimi, played by Witherspoon, who is trying to find her husband, Anwar. She doesn’t know that Anwar was kidnapped at the Washington D.C. airport. The other story is about a teenage couple roaming around South Africa, trying to runaway from the girl’s family. The two stories connect and relate at the very end. The movie starts out when a group of unknown terrorists attempt to kill a torturer named Abai Fawal.

The attack led to many deaths, including one American’s. This incident caused the Head of U.S Intelligence, Corrine Whiteman, who is played by Streep, to undergo a plan to capture suspected terrorist such as Anwar. Agent Douglas Freeman, played by Gyllenhaal, is sent overseas to overlook the torture of Anwar. Freeman’s partner was the American who was killed. After capturing Anwar, they take him to South Africa and locked him in a small chamber by himself. Back home, Isabella is waiting for her husband at the airport. She later discovers that her husband was captured.

I honestly thought this movie was very boring and slow. The only intense scenes were the scenes including torture, making this movie rated R. Many of the characters and scenes of this movie were insignificant. The movie runs for two long hours and one hour just seemed to lag on. The story of Anwar and Isabella search was plain dull.

The more interesting story was the one that included the couple, partly because the audience hasn’t any idea of what is happening. The story of Anwar wasn’t close to a mystery; it was over dramatic. The audience already knew the story; it was just showing two different points of view. The ending was not predictable, but it lacked suspense. It’s a complete waste of time to stay for the ending.

The cast of characters was a large disappointment despite having such talented actors and actresses. The acting was horrible. I highly don’t recommend you to watch Rendition. If you do, I suggest you bring a pillow and blanket if watching Rendition.

Rating: One out of five stars