Rating of
2/4
Noble effort but can't quite achieve what it wants
patjohnson76 - wrote on 03/30/08
This movie has good intentions and wants to deliver home a message - unfortunately it works too hard and tries to weave too many stories into one. There's the main story of the mistaken terrorist going through rendtion, the story of how his wife deals with it at home, the political angle complete with senators, and then the story of what really happened. All stories mean the actors walk around with very serious faces saying very serious dialogue while walking very...seriously. Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, and Stellen Saarsgard are criminally underused in the political angle, which could have made a good movie on its own. I thought it was pretty funny that Reese Witherspoon's character, who's 9 months pregnant, is walking around in high heels like it's no problem at all. The movie's okay, but it could have been so much more.
