The Recruit

Rating

Director

Roger Donaldson

Screenplay

Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer, Mitch Glazer

Length

115 min.

Starring

Al Pacino, Colin Farrell, Bridget Moynahan, Gabriel Macht, Mike Realba, Dom Fiore, Kenneth Mitchell, Karl Pruner, Ron Lea

MPAA Rating

PG-13 (For violence, sexuality and language)

Review

The best and brightest are selected to serve the United States as an agent in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The Recruit gives us a glimpse at the training process and the potential corruption inherent in new recruits.

Colin Farrell is James Clayton, a bartender whose scholastic talents gain the attention of Walter Burke (Al Pacino) who is known for choosing excellent recruits for his training compound. Another factor plays into Clayton’s selection: his father was a CIA agent whose mysterious disappearance has never been explained, at least to his family. Clayton at first spurns the request, but after a brief conversation with Burke, who hints he knows James’ father’s fate, Clayton decides to join the CIA.

Throughout training, he attempts to uncover his father’s ultimate doom but never gets his questions answered. There he also falls in love with a woman he’s later instructed to follow as a secret agent. Layla (Bridget Moynahan) is, on numerous occasions, the target of Clayton’s romantic interests. During a training session where the men are instructed to pick up women at a bar, she purports herself as having been terminated from the program and seduces him into taking her home. As it turns out, she was given a similar instruction and because she succeeded, he failed. This causes a distinct rift between the two that is temporarily repaired during a separate training encounter and later through his pursuit of her as an enemy agent.

The screenplay by scribes Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer and Mitch Glazer is fairly predictable with previews giving too much information to the audience. The characters are archetypal for the genre, but Moynahan and Farrell improve on the stereotype with their good performances. Farrell has the seductive looks and disgruntled attitude that help convince the viewer of his character’s situation. Moynahan has a similar style and together they create a chemistry that lends to their opposites attract style love affair. Pacino, on the other hand, gives a performance similar to many of his others. He plays a loud, argumentative and domineering character whose intentions are barely hidden and whose actions are blatant.

Director Roger Donaldson tackles a traditional genre with traditional storytelling techniques. His technical as well as emotional direction is limited at best, focusing on car chases, intrigue and a lack of originality not evident in the screenplay. While his directing style doesn’t destroy the movie, it throws in a few roadblocks that cause some of the film’s weaker elements. With Pacino’s on-screen performance and Donaldson’s off-screen assistance, The Recruit lacks the ultimate quality that make other movies great.

Any audience who enjoys movies focusing around modern espionage who tire of the glamorous Bond style will enjoy The Recruit. The situations are traditional, but the direction is fresh and original. A modern tale always lends itself well to a time of mistrust and doubt as it capitalizes on the general fears of a nation preparing for war. Here, we have an example of the unique bonding experience felt by moviegoers who desire to escape the reality they live in with a movie whose reality, while fictional, could truly exist.

Review Written

May 13, 2003