David Stever
The weak link of this otherwise pretty good movie is Ryan Phillipe His character is kidnapped and being held captive, and during that captivity, he is the victim of torture, and while we're shown some pretty damned convincing torture during this movie, Mr. Phillipe is totally unconvincing as the victim of this torture.The crew that is doing this torture are absolutely great- they are actually good actors, and their actions reflect the complexity of their roles and their corresponding abilities as actors. On the other hand, watching Ryan Phillipe in this is like watching Rob Schneider attempting drama, and that would definitely not be for the faint of heart.
edwagreen
While the acting is good,this film becomes a reversal of the good and bad syndrome.While on a mission to create a food-bank in Morocco, Ryan Philippe is kidnapped, supposedly by terrorists led by an excellent Laurence Fishburned.The film then becomes one totally shot in one room where a cat and mouse game are played by the two men who try to get as much information as possible from each other.It's this back and forth confrontation that really becomes boring after a while. At times, there are flashbacks with Philippe back with his girlfriend in Europe.The end will absolutely jolt you.
charles000
Of course, I could watch just about anything with Lawrence Fishburne in it, but here, his performance and skill as an actor really shines.That's not to detract from the others in this film. All of the principal actors delivered absolutely excellent, convincing character performances.The story itself is a bit controversial, to say the least. It's not that I doubt this sort of "extreme" rendition occurs in current times, but there are various threads in this story which could be debated.Of course, I won't explain the outcome here, you'll have to see this film for yourself for that. But it does deliver an "outside the box" outcome which is certainly different than most films of this genre'.In a way, it does remind me a bit of the film "Unthinkable", another look into the murky world of extreme rendition, covert operations with a dark twist, and so on.I would suggest seeing this. Even if you don't buy the implications of the story, the acting in this work is first rate.
aGuiltySoul
This is a tense psychological drama. A Dutch banker travels to Morocco to set up a food program at the behest of his Moroccan girlfriend. He is kidnapped by a group of extremists who hold him captive and ultimately torture him for information. But who, we wind up asking, is ultimately who? And what truly are everyone's motives? It's a tough film to watch as it deals not only with terrorism and our assumptions about terrorists but also with the challenging topic of torture as a means of obtaining information.The best parts of the film involve the intense dialogs between the three main characters of the captive, Martijn (Ryan Phillippe), the captor, Ahmat (Laurence Fishburne), and the captor's accomplice, Aicha (Gina Torres). These three actors' performances are outstandingly authentic and riveting. There's no question that if you love to see actors at the top of their game that you shouldn't miss this film. Ryan Phillippe's role as Martijn, however, is the most demanding and he never falters. As the focus character, Ryan's performance creates an incredibly intelligent and complex character. But this, nevertheless, is a flawed film. It sometimes stumbles over itself. There seems to be some serious issues with editing and pacing. That's too bad. But this is still definitely worth watching if you can handle it's frank look at modern man's sojourn into primitive behavior.
AD
