The Recruit Is Nothing Special

With more concise writing and closer detail to prevent overtly foreshadowing the ending of the movie in abundance – The Recruit could have been far better. Everything else is in place, a Hollywood legend – Al Pacino, a new star – Colin Farrell, and just enough spice of the unknown thrown in to intrigue audiences for two hours. But when such said “Hollywood legend”, or said “new star” opens their mouths – the film makes the CIA look worse even after 9-11 (oh and yes, the movie makes a point to stick it to the CIA about 9-11)

James Clayton/Colin Farrell is a good-looking genius. He attends MIT, has developed a computer program code-named Spartacus that could allow the computer company Dell to put their logo on Sony’s marquee in Times Square, and yet Clayton has a troubled past – his father died while working for the gas company Shell Corporation in 1990 and Clayton has never yet been able to explain what his father did or what led up to his disappearance and subsequent death.

Walter Burke/Al Pacino is a CIA recruiter. He works for the CIA, has developed a master plan to recruit promising new recruits like Clayton into the CIA family, and has a troubled past too – but conceals his secrets by saying they are just that. Secrets – that the CIA thrives by, secrets that will never be revealed. For the best CIA agent – doesn’t exist.

After persuading James into signing up for the CIA and attending the FARM – a CIA training camp, James begins to see just how secretive and intensive the CIA really is. It’s not all hand to hand combat or like a James Bond movie…no during one particular mission Clayton is instructed to walk into a bar alone and walk out with a member of the opposite sex who wants nothing more than to have sex with him. Okay, yeah... a little like James Bond.

But eventually the FARM is plowed, and James finds himself in his most dangerous mission yet – (after two missions the dramatics are lowered) – he is to find a mole in the CIA and expose him or her for what they truly are.

Could the mole be Layla/Bridget Moynahan who Clayton has an instant sexual feel for, or Zack/Gabriel Macht who Clayton instantly dislikes for he speaks a foreign language and sits next to Layla on a bus, or Walter Burke – Clayton’s mentor – or maybe, just maybe, the mole is Clayton and better yet he doesn’t know he’s a mole or maybe he does and we don’t.

And so, The Recruit is designed to be full of twist and turns, but that is expected if the movie is written by no less than three guys – Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer, and Mitch Glazer who combined have written such movies as Sphere, Great Expectations, The Natural, and Equilibrium. Not a bad collection of movies, well minus Sphere – but when you have three guys all writing about the same movie it seems they battle each other and the movie falls victim.

Al Pacino must be getting old. The Recruit is not the first movie where all it seems he does is stand around dictating his lines in his typical horse voice which sounds important and urgent – yet there’s something missing. With The Recruit – the biggest mistake both the writers and director Roger Donaldson makes is to keep Pacino passive for most of the movie. It takes almost an hour and a half until Pacino does something more than talk while sitting in a car sipping coffee, sitting at a bar, or standing still in front of a podium. He should take a few cues from Harrison Ford who at least, with age, as taken on jobs where he gets out and gets into the action – instead of taking the lazy path of just standing around speaking from experience instead of showing it.

The Recruit really is about Colin Farrell, an up and coming star who came out of nowhere. He seems to be everywhere these days. From working with Steven Speilberg in Minority Report to working in a phone booth. The ladies love him and with good reason – he is rather sexy and has a dry sensitive side to him too. Farrell has also toyed with the press keeping them on their toes as to what he is feeling and who he is doing. It would be easy to dismiss him as a playboy – but it seems that is what keeps him intriguing to audiences – so it comes as quite a surprise when he really can act. But still, he needs some better material.

For those who may want to purchase this movie on DVD – the single disc package comes included with a running commentary of the movie, four deleted scenes, a 15 minute documentary detailing what “may” go on in real CIA training, and a feature to register your DVD. I found the commentary to be, well, pretty boring and the 15 minute documentary provides a few interesting aspects into the realm of the CIA but there were too many examples of trying to put the movie on a pedestal and superimposing it with what the official CIA person was saying about the quote/unquote real CIA. And the feature to register your DVD – although a nice touch in case your DVD ever becomes damaged, seems like yet another ploy for movie companies to keep tabs on what you bought and what you liked. Plus what happens if you register your rental disc? Buyers of previously viewed movies be wary!

In the end, the movie I was expecting more. I can forgive Colin Farell, he’s new in this town and although he has the charisma to be around for quite a while, I think he needs to pick roles with better writing. And, dear ‘ol Al, what’s going on? Although I liked him in S1m0ne, he seems to be going soft and picks movies where he acts as a stereotyped puppet.

Although I have seen far worse movies, and although this one is not a bad rental for a Friday night, it was so closeto the ledge of being something better.