Director:
Gavin HoodCámara:
Dion BeebeReparto:
Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Omar Metwally, Aramis Knight, Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, Igal Naor, Peter Sarsgaard, Bob Gunton, J.K. Simmons (más)Sinopsis(1)
La trama se desarrolla en dos continentes distintos y sigue de cerca las vidas de Douglas Freeman, un analista de la CIA que trabaja en el norte de África y que, tras presenciar el brutal y poco ortodoxo interrogatorio al que somete la policía secreta norafricana a un egipcio-americano, se ve forzado a poner en tela de juicio la misión que le han encomendado; Anwar El-Ibrahimi, el ingeniero químico egipcio-americano cuya familia emigró a Estados Unidos cuando él era un niño y que ahora es sospechoso de participar en un atentado; su esposa, Isabella El-Ibrahimi, está embarazada y hará todo cuanto esté en su mano por encontrar a su esposo, que al parecer ha desaparecido en un vuelo entre Ciudad del Cabo y Washington, DC. Para ello contará con la ayuda de un amigo de la facultad que tiene buenas relaciones entre la clase política; Alan Smith, asesor del senador Hawkins, quien descubre el perturbador hecho de que, siguiendo las órdenes de la directora de la división de antiterrorismo de la CIA, Corrinne Whitman, a Anwar le han enviado a un país del tercer mundo para interrogarle; Abasi Fawal, es el director de la prisión secreta y tiene problemas personales con su rebelde hija, Fátima y el novio de ésta, un fundamentalista islámico llamado Khalid. (Tripictures)
(más)Reseñas (2)
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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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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