2008 Woodie Awards
Nothing Is As It Seems
Shelly Bryan
Issue date: 2/27/03 Section: Arts & Entertainment
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In sum, Walter Burke (Al Pacino) is a CIA recruiter and has been in the business for over a decade. Considering himself to be "a scary judge of talent," Burke tracks down and convinces witty James Clayton (Colin Farrell) to enter the CIA training program, since being an agent is "in his blood," an idea that is tossed around throughout the film. When James eventually agrees, hoping to determine the cause of his father's death, Burke guides him through the rigorous training process as his mentor, and James easily progresses to the top of the ranks.
Burke then gives James a special assignment: James must keep strict watch over his fellow CIA trainee Layla Moore (Bridget Moynahan), a mole who has been allowed into the Agency with the sole purpose of the agents' discovering who she is working for. The catch? James and Layla have an unspoken attraction, a sexual tension that only rises throughout the film.
Director Roger Donaldson, the man who brought us Thirteen Days in 2002 and Dante's Peak in 1997, introduces us to The Recruit as his fourteenth feature-length film. And writing trio Kurt Wimmer (who wrote the screenplay for The Thomas Crowne Affair in 1999), Roger Towne, and Mitch Glazer (screenwriter for Great Expectations in 1998) give us triple the suspense in a film where we think we know the ending, but this is not a film made by first-timers.
As for the mechanics, there was not a lot of governmental lingo, in which I easily become lost in other movies. (Let's face it: not everyone likes every genre of film.) But in The Recruit, I was able to lose myself in the realistic dialogue (partially because I could understand what they were talking about), and also the special effects, which were kept to a surprising minimum. This is not to say the film was not intense; what it lacks in special effects it makes up in psychological tension, a nice contrast for this genre.
The only criticism I have is the predictability of the developing relationship between Layla and James. From their initial meeting point, it is obvious they will be forced to get to know each other in one way or another. This is Hollywood, folks, and there are very few American films these days that do not have a sex scene. But it's inevitable their romance is doomed from the start, especially since they are CIA trainees competing for a spot in the Agency.