A dash of Colin Farrell here, a pinch of Al Pacino there, and you're assured to have a stellar film, right? This is reality, folks, not Hollywood. Throwing star power and a big budget into the filmic oven does not always produce a mouth-watering movie, and The Recruit is no different.
This formulaic flick starring a rising actor and an aging one has about as much story as Curious George Joins the CIA.
We follow our hero, James Clayton (Farrell), as confident as he is insecure, as he is recruited by Walter Burke (Pacino) into a CIA training program. The movie wastes little time in exposition as Clayton is immediately put through hellish preparation to become the perfect secret operative.
Then he meets another (unsurprisingly sexy) operative-in-training, Layla, played by Bridget Moynahan. After being seemingly kicked out of the program, Clayton is confronted by Burke to inform him that he has attained the position of NOC (non-official cover agent), the most secret of ranks in the CIA. Burke then tells him that Layla is not the super-sexy CIA operative she appears to be, but (gasp!) a super-sexy spy for an unknown boss!
Befuddled but loyal, Clayton reluctantly takes on the mission to find out for whom Layla is working and stop whatever information she is trying to steal.
Perhaps my biggest problem with this film is not the movie itself but its trailer. Anyone who saw the full-length trailer can easily derive the film's plot twist in a matter of seconds. Leaving two certain lines of dialogue out would at least have left the viewer with a small chance at being surprised during the film's final chapter (although still unlikely, unless you've never seen what I like to call "any movie ever made").
Another peeve of mine is the fact that almost half the movie is spent at the training facility with little to no story advances. We just "ooh" and "ahh" at some nifty CIA gadgetry and watch Farrell and Pacino trade supposedly witty banter.
Farrell puts on a fine performance as Clayton, a moderately atypical action hero. He's unsure of himself and his place in the world, but he has the courage to find out.
However, even with the film's "twist," Pacino's character is still rather one-dimensional and uninteresting. He simply looks bored in this unchallenging role. We've seen Burke-like characters many times before in films such as L.A. Confidential and Minority Report. If you feel like that ruins the movie, I'm sorry. Go watch the trailer and you won't feel so bad.
Throughout the film, Pacino keeps muttering how he is a "scary judge of talent." Well Burke, so am I, and this movie is a scary misuse of film.
