But Rendition, in the end, is a Lifetime movie with pretensions toward being a political thriller. (They could even call it YOU HAVE MY HUSBAND! since Witherspoon shrieks that at Streep in a ludicrous scene.)

I don't fault Rendition for its liberal politics. I fault it for hammering home those politics in such pounding, slanted fashion.

If these new, allegedly topical movies are to make us feel anything -- to move us toward any action or even just toward any fresh realization -- they need to at least seem alive on the screen, instead of just courting our polite, measured applause.

What’s the point of tackling a real-life hot-button issue if everything about it is presented in an only-in-Hollywood style of fantasy filmmaking?