Movie reviews, production notes, and more! - "Rendition"

Movie Review: Rendition

Film Review By Michael Phillips, Tribune movie critic The way Meryl Streep answers a late-night phone call in "Rendition," you know in four syllables you're dealing with a seasoned D.C. power broker who won't be brought down to the ordinary, earnest level of the film surrounding her. This is the latest in a series of topical wartime Hollywood efforts. (Best so far, by a mile: "In the Valley of Elah.") And like much of what Hollywood put out during World War II, supporting a popular cause rather than questioning our government's intentions and methods in an unpopular one, it is timely without being gripping. Streep's character is a CIA terrorism chief named Corrinne Whitman, and when she identifies herself on the phone, receiving bad news of a suicide bombing overseas, her name comes out as a quiet statement of fact. Streep plays a mere supporting role in director Gavin Hood's picture, a preachment for saner treatment of suspected evildoers both here and abroad. But it would be a long, tough haul without her, and without Alan Arkin lending his dry, wry authority to a longtime senator not interested in rocking any boats. These wily veterans stroll off with the film, while ... read more Official Web Site: http://www.renditionmovie.com/ Back to main movie page Showing Today at: Click here for other showings