Starring: Al Pacino, Colin Farrell, Bridget Moynahan
Director: Roger Donaldson
Rated: M15+
THE Recruit is a psychological spy thriller that lives up to its name.
What is most surprising is that the action is located entirely in Virginia.
Although James Clayton (Colin Farrell) is a genius with computers at MIT, he is aimless. Enter Walter Burke (Al Pacino), the CIA’s number one recruiter, who hooks the young whiz kid into the spy force by playing on his grief for his lost father and offering him an opportunity to see how far his talents can take him.
At spy school the rebellious Clayton performs extremely well until he falls in love with fellow student Layla Moore (Bridget Moynahan). When his love for her compromises one of the tests, he is booted off the course, only to be rehabilitated by Burke to undertake an undercover investigation at CIA headquarters.
Burke believes Moore is a spy. Clayton is to continue his relationship with her and find out for whom she is working.
Any spy thriller that can hold the audience until the last 10 minutes is doing well. The Recruit easily does that.
The pay-off is not unexpected, but it is the least likely explanation of what’s going on. Once the final revelation is out, gaps in the story appear everywhere, but this only marginally takes away from the enjoyment of the film.
Apart from the retrospective holes in the logic of the story, there are a couple of heavy-handed plot developments that spoil the more subtle tension overall. For example, the romance between Moore and Clayton comes too early and too strongly. Moore speaking Farsi is an early indicator of her other interests, and Clayton’s unresolved grief for his father is such that one would hope the CIA’s psychological profiles would send him for counselling before welcoming him into spy school.
Australian director Roger Donaldson, best known for 13 Days and Dante’s Peak, seems to enjoy creating a psychologically claustrophobic atmosphere in his films. It’s perfect for The Recruit where it is impossible for the trainees to work out what’s real, whom they can trust and when the tests are over.
Donaldson gets great performances out of Farrell and Moynahan, who has a striking resemblance to Juliette Binoche. And Al Pacino is as good as ever.
