”
The Recruit
”
is a standard by-the-books thriller that doesn’t really have
that many thrills. It also is hampered by Al Pacino’s most
overheated performance, which goes right over the top. As espionage
thrillers go, you could do worse, but
”
The Recruit
”
is strictly ordinary entertainment: entertaining, yet ultimately
forgettable.
“The Recruit” is a standard by-the-books thriller that doesn’t really have that many thrills. It also is hampered by Al Pacino’s most overheated performance, which goes right over the top. As espionage thrillers go, you could do worse, but “The Recruit” is strictly ordinary entertainment: entertaining, yet ultimately forgettable.
“Nothing is what it seems” are the words that Walter Burke (Pacino) repeats over and over to his new protege, CIA recruit James Clayton (Colin Farrell), and that’s true, because Clayton, who has supposedly been recruited as a classic spy, is going to be doing something quite different, just like the quote implies.
Clayton has gone through the emotional roller coaster of losing his father Edward to shaky circumstances in a plane crash after working on an oil rig in Peru. The inventor of a software program that allows the user of a single computer PC to control many other computers, young James Clayton is recruited to the CIA by Walter Burke, who woos him with a promise of becoming a secret agent. As he heads to recruit spy training, he learns about the dark, hideous world of international espionage.
Of course, even a spy thriller needs a romantic leading lady love interest, and Clayton falls for the beautiful Layla Moore (Bridget Moynahan), who also is training for her first international assignment, although all may not be as it seems in this movie, as Pacino’s Burke is constantly reminding Clayton.
When James and Layla are working on a training mission, they are whisked up by some masked men and taken to an unknown destination. James is soon in a room being interrogated, and they torture him until he breaks. Because this was just a test of his will, James is fired and expelled from training.
Burke tracks James down, tells him he isn’t fired, and orders him to watch Layla, who could be a mole or a foreign agent. All of this becomes very confusing, as we start to think Burke has his own hidden agenda up his sleeve.
Pacino hams it up for the audience, and he almost seems like an acting coach and not an agent working for the government. He seems to be trying to outdo his co-star Colin Farrell, who gets more out of his character by underplaying him, besting Pacino in the acting game. Pacino, who is given top billing in the film, isn’t in the film much after the first 20 minutes and emerges only at the end to tie up the plot’s loose threads.
This is Colin Farrell’s movie, and he does good work, along with his love interest/nemesis Bridget Moynahan, who provides ample support. Farrell is a true star, as he proved in “Minority Report,” and he really sinks his teeth into the roles he takes (“Hart’s War,” “American Outlaws,” “Daredevil”), even if they aren’t particularly well-written. It’s just a matter of time before he gets some of the prime roles offered by Hollywood’s big studios. Soon, he should be in the same league as Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey, which means he should get some better parts.
“The Recruit” is a watchable, watered-down spy film that offers reasonable thrills and some good moments, but it’s a far cry from “The Bourne Identity,” which uses the genre to its best effects. The film is a good place to waste a couple of hours, but it’s mediocre entertainment at best.
THE RECRUIT. Directed by Roger Donaldson. Written by Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer and Mitch Glazer. With Al Pacino, Colin Farrell and Bridget Moynahan. Rated R (language and violence), 120 minutes. Now playing at Bay Area theaters.
