Rendition

We rented Rendition over the weekend on the recommendation of a friend. I don't feel like I wasted five bucks, but I feel like I could have spent the money better.
The movie had a number of problems:

• Meryl Streep's character was too cynical to be believable.


• Jake Gyllenhaal


• Reese Witherspoon's character was too earnest. Don't even get me started on the fact that she was pregnant also.


• The time phased love subplot was disconnected from the main action of the movie.

To sum it up: The movie was two movies. One was a trope about the out of control US security agencies in the age of Terror. This one was populated by transparently stock characters. They are either boring or over the top.
The second movie, which could have been a good movie, is a mystery about a father trying to solve a crime and find his daughter. The character's in this movie were sympathetic and interesting. If it had been pull away from the sad "message: movie and allowed to stand on its own two feet, this movie would have been an excellent movie.
Sadly, it was not.

Michael Clayton

Goerge Clooney's '07 vehicle is a good suspense movie. The plot is tight, if predictable. The acting is solid, if average. The story is interesting, if uninspired.
Clayton struggles to decide between doing the right thing and doing what he is expected to do. He struggles to be better than the man he has become. The ending is Hollywood, but the struggle is there.

'Before the Devils Knows You're Dead'

As someone who loves seeing and hearing different points of view, and utimately waiting for the moment when they all converge, I enjoyed, "Before the Devil Knows Your Dead," even if the plot relies too heavily on viewers to fill in emotional blanks.

The story, which boils down to how far over the line - between good and evil - folks are willing to venture for money, is an intriguing one. The idea becomes even more complex when the potential sacrifice for money is not only morality, but family.

And tossing Phillip Seymour Hoffman into the lead role to illustrate the hypothetical is always a good move. Adding yet another distinct character to his repetoire, Hoffman is stellar as the ruthless, but somehow vaguely sympathetic Andy, who solicits his younger brother to rob their parents jewelry store.

The changing point of view, though not a new technique, also had a refreshing twist. Viewers travel back and forth in time, watching days unfold for each character, but not necessarily from each character's perspective. When we're given the textual cue that we'll be seeing Andy's day unfold, for example, we see him, not his point of view, i.e., the camera is focused on him, not what he's seeing.

The film is innovative, well acted and suspenseful, but leaves quite a bit to the viewers imagination. Character's don't necessarily make quick transformations, or many senses, any transformation, but they make serious, life-altering decisions, while the audience gets only snippets of their motivation.

Overall it's worth seeing for entertainment's sake, and as a conversation starter about morality, but don't look too deep in the film itself for answers.