NP from the New Yorker: Extraordinary Rendition

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

"The legal definition of torture has been much aired in recent years, and I take 
“Mamma Mia!” to be a useful contribution to that debate. In a way, the whole 
film is a startling twist on the black art of rendition: ordinary citizens, often 
unaware of their own guilt, are spirited off to a secure environment in Eastern 
Europe, there to be forced into a humiliating and often painful confession of 
sins past. “I tried to reach for you, but you have closed your mind,” in the 
bitter words of Sam. I thought that Pierce Brosnan had been dragged to the 
edge of endurance by North Korean sadists in his final Bond film, “Die 
Another Day,” but that was a quick tickle with a feather duster compared 
with the agony of singing Abba’s “S.O.S.” to Meryl Streep through a 
kitchen window. Somebody, either a cheeky Swede or another North 
Korean, has deliberately scored the number a tone and a half too high, 
with visible results: swelling muscles along the jawline, tightened throat, 
a panicky bulge in the eyes. There is no delicate way of putting this, but 
anyone watching Brosnan in mid-delivery will conclude that he has recently 
suffered from a series of complex digestive problems, and that the camera 
has, with unfortunate timing, caught him at the exact moment when he is 
finally working them out. What has he done to deserve this?"

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2008/07/28/080728crci_cinema_lane