If I had to grade this movie on an academic scale, I’d give it a solid B. Maybe even a B+.

An Egyptian man who is married to an American woman, has a son and another child on the way is abducted at the airport in D.C., flown out of the country, and interrogated in all kinds of horrifying ways in a secret prison somewhere in North Africa.

When he doesn’t show up to the airport, his wife flies to D.C. to visit a former lover who has some political pull. She insists that he’s never done anything wrong, but you can tell it’s hard for her to be sure. What makes it interesting is that you don’t really know if he’s innocent or not.

At the same time, the lead interrogator’s daughter is having a romance with an Islamic fundamentalist, and Jake Gyllenhaal is struggling with his first assignment supervising an interrogation. His character’s descent is one of the more interesting performances in the film. Meryl Streep also does a good job playing a higher-up in the CIA. (Hello, Southern accent, by the way.)

With ensemble dramas, it can sometimes be challenging to make sure all the pieces fit together without dragging or going too quickly, but Rendition hits it perfectly, particularly with an interesting chronological shift near the end.

Apparently there’s a perception that this movie is liberal propaganda, but I don’t buy it. I was against “enhanced interrogation techniques” going into the theater, and I walked out conflicted. It’s a complicated issue, and it’s an issue that the movie explores from all sides.

The only complaint I have is that I couldn’t really connect with the characters. They seemed so distant, so lost in their own worlds. At one point Jake Gyllenhaal makes a meaningful sacrifice for another character and I kept waiting for some sort of acknowledgment, but there was nothing but a blank stare.

Other than that, it’s a timely movie that’s very well paced, shot, and edited.