Totally cute actor Omar Metwally (center) is about to get tortured in Rendition

Rendition
Grade: C

South African director Gavin Hood follows his Oscar-winning Tsotsi with a limp thriller that doesn’t build any momentum until it’s too late to care what happens. Reese Witherspoon makes us long for her peppy Legally Blonde days with her tired portrayal of an American woman whose Egyptian-born husband (the gorgeous Omar Metwally) gets detained and tortured by the CIA on the suspicion that he’s affiliated with terrorists. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a CIA analyst who undergoes an ethical crisis as he monitors the torture sessions. Most of dialogue is so corny that even Meryl Streep looks ridiculous in the role of a CIA heavy with a menacing Southern drawl. Opens Friday, October 19.