Friday, February 02, 2007

We Can't Wait #19 Rendition

Aside from Brokeback Mountain fever (which did suck up a lot of time) 2006 was Jake Gyllenhaal free at the movies. Not so 2007. He returns twice. Rejoice Gyllenhaalics, rejoice!

Rendition is a contemporary political thriller about a CIA Man (Jakey-poo) who begins to question everything when he witnesses a terrorist suspect interrogated. The suspect's wife (Reese Witherspoon) heads to DC to seek answers. 'Where is her husband? What is going on?' Presumably these two story threads collide rather dramatically. Omar Metwalley and current Oscar nominees Meryl Streep and Alan Arkin co-star. Rendition arrives in theaters in late November. That's the plan at least. Just in time for Oscars?

As in all things Jake, I defer to JA first...

JA: Well I never got around to Tsotsi, director Gavin Hood's last acclaimed film, but I trust My Man Jake to choose his scripts and directors wisely - he hasn't shown me any reason to doubt his dreamy blue-eyes/opinion yet. And that's some cast there (you forgot Peter Sarsgaard!).

Gabriel: This sounds familiar...the CIA guy, the evil bosses, the questioning wife. Is this Good Shepherd 2? And there's that other new film Breach, with Ryan Phillippe...trade Ryan for Jake, and it's similar, no?

Joe: One would hope that Reese’s role has a little more meat on its bones than poor Angelina’s did in The Good Shepherd. I’m putting my faith in the cast here more than anything. Whereas Shepherd and Breach are both looking backwards at the Cold War, this one looks intently toward the current “war on terror.” Lets hope it looks unblinkingly. As it is now, the cast has me riveted – Jake, Reese, Sarsgaard, and Streep? Did they have a poster of me in the casting agent’s office and a mandate to please me at all costs? I’ll offer my thanks in advance.

JA:Where are we? I just woke up after fainting from the phrase "trade Ryan for Jake." Oh to live in that world. Which Reese apparently does. Damn her.

Joe:I’m still waiting for Jake and Ryan to team up with Matt McConaughey for their long-awaited Three Men and a Naked Cardio Workout movie. The promo pics for that one have been stellar.

Lu: That sounds like a gooood movie.

Nathaniel: It is. I got it on bootleg in Chinatown. I'll burn you all copies.


previously on "we can't wait"
#20 The Bourne Ultimatum
Intro -films that didn't make the list

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Count me in for a copy!

Anonymous said...

The screenplay of Rendition has been going around hollywood for a while. I believe it made the list of 10 best unproduced scripts a few years ago.

Anonymous said...

Ugh, I want to see this so bad! The cast is to die for. It had better live up to the hype.

Also Nat, how many are you planning to add a day? I gotta see if some of MY most anticipated films(Margot at the Wedding, I'm Not There, My Blueberry Nights) get on your list. They better!

Anonymous said...

I just found something terrifying.

Go to the Film Bitch Awards '04 Best Supporting Actor and roll your mouse over David Carradine.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to disappoint, but Reese Witherspoon's role in Rendition allows her to do a lot of hand wringing, worrying, crying, snapping at her child because of the "tension" she's suffering, and little else. Oh. There's one scenery-chewing scene where she gets to scream at the Evil CIA boss (Streep) in front of the media. It's not a meaty part.

It's really all Jake's movie. At least in the script, that is.

Saarsgard plays another in his line of kindly appearing scumbags. Not a big role.

I'm surprised to learn that the script was once considered one of the 10 best unproduced scripts in Hollywood. It's riddled with cliche and generalization about "bad" Western culture (i.e., Reese Witherspoon lies to her kid about his father's whereabouts and gets gently lectured about how bad lies are from her muslim relative-in-law) and "good" Middle Eastern culture (i.e., a young suicide bomber in love with a non-fundamentalist girl is "conflicted" about his duty to his cause). The script weirdly ascribes all kinds of Western moral values to its Eastern characters, so the whole tends to feel like a very "Hollywood" take on cultural mores.

Anonymous said...

Guys,

How can you be so critical for a script u havnt read yet or a movie u didnt see yet, Ive read the script , it is well written , very deep and rich and its talking World Wide Crisis about terrorism,torture, human rights.....it is presented in a very modern way of alterning between 2 differents life in 2 differents wolrd...... u have my world it will be a good movie and remember Gavin Hood is an oscar winner.....Remember my words , time will reveal,

ksane said...

Hello, Kelley Sane here. I just wanted to comment on some of your posts. I wrote Rendition in 2006. It sold a month after being on the market. it was nover on a list of unproduced scripts. (I wish some of my earlier works were.) Rendition isn't an anti-western or Muslim work. I simply tried to put a window on the practise of rendition and allow the viewer to decide if its right or wrong. thanks. Kelley

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the nice post!