Directed by:
Gavin HoodCinematography:
Dion BeebeCast:
Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Omar Metwally, Aramis Knight, Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, Igal Naor, Peter Sarsgaard, Bob Gunton, J.K. Simmons (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Tense political thriller spanning two continents. Douglas Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal), a CIA analyst working in North Africa, starts to question his assignment when he witnesses the brutal interrogation of an Egyptian-American by secret North African police. When Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), an Egyptian-American chemical engineer whose family emigrated to the United States when he was a boy, is suspected of a terrorist act, his pregnant wife, Isabella El-Ibrahimi (Reese Witherspoon), does everything she can to find him when he seemingly disappears during a flight from South Africa to Washington, D.C. She enlists the help of an old college friend, Alan Smith (Peter Sarsgaard), an aide to Senator Hawkins (Alan Arkin), who uncovers the shocking fact that Anwar has been shipped off to a third-world country for interrogation on the orders of Corrine Whitman (Meryl Streep), the CIA's head of the anti-terrorism unit. Isabella and Douglas team up to try to secure Anwar's release from a secret detention facility somewhere in the Middle East. (Entertainment in Video)
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I feel like I've seen this story somewhere before. Every piece of the script seems to have fallen out of a different movie, where it was also better executed. And because you have a combo of The Constant Gardner, Vantage Point, or Babel all in the same place, along with an incomprehensible chronological arrangement, you end up just sifting in vain through the boring parts trying to find something you actually liked. As expected, Reese Witherspoon is the one thing that stands out, as I believe her character completely, and Jake Gyllenhaal effortlessly proves that he is a true acting chameleon. Sadly, two stars for a sterile exploration of relationships with Muslims that ultimately leads nowhere.
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When a lunatic attacks you, your state is here to take care of you. The attacker will receive a penalty. When it's your dad who attacks you, who do you turn to afterward? This is actually a film about the classic "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" Who will guard the guards themselves? How far can the government go to obtain the truth? How can it treat people? Is torture still permitted? It’s a heavy topic that is sometimes very intense. In war, there is no presumption of innocence or humanity. Is that true? And are we actually still at war, after all? Well, not us, but the Americans. Clearly, wars can never get enough, and in this regard, I'd say the film doesn't exaggerate too much. After all, some of the news that gets out speaks for itself. Torture is still a tool for confession. Just like in the time of the Inquisition. I enjoy movies where you can purely hate the characters. This is one of them. A great idea: By torturing one person, you create countless more enemies. It's not a brilliant piece where everything works perfectly; the acting performances aren't particularly great (except Meryl, but she's always great), and the screenplay is sometimes unnecessarily stretched. However, thematically, it had a strong impact on me.
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