Interesting movies of late

Having decided to take a relaxing weekend off, I was able to enjoy three interesting movies. The first, an independent Irish film called The Mapmaker. It was actually pretty well done for a small-scale production. Because it was filmed and produced in Ireland, the story (which was about a mapmaker who stumbles on the body of a man near the Irish-UK border) had an extra dose of authenticity. Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch Rendition, a movie Roger Ebert praised highly, about a man mistaken for a terrorist. The movie wasn't exactly pleasant, but it was well done and did a great job at examining the practice of "enhanced interrogation". Perhaps the most disturbing moment of the movie was when the suspect, after being tortured in various brutal ways, gave a confession and a list of names. The local thugs (the suspect had been extradited to an unknown Middle-Eastern country) and the CIA were elated, but were quickly disappointed by the news that the names were for the players of a soccer team the suspect had played on. It was disturbing to see how someone could slowly be broken down and degraded until he/she is willing to confess to anything. The final movie, Gone Baby Gone, was a film adaption of the novel from Dennis's Lehane's fabulous Patrick Kenzies serious (I still think about "A Drink Before the War" every once and a while. This movie could have so easily evolved into a stupid, superficial action flick, but it didn't. The actors did a superb job, the characters they played were complex, multi-dimensional and engaging. The plot held plenty of surprises (that were actually surprising) and had a ending that was both satisfying and insightful. I'm also relaxing while enjoying reading C. S. Harris's debut novel, What Angels Fear, about a British aristocrat on the run from the law (in early nineteenth century England) for a murder he didn't commit. The protagonist is a bit too good to be true, but the narrative and setting make it worth reading.