 |
|
Photo courtesy of Touchtone Pictures
|
Al Pacino and Colin Farrell star in "The Recruit," a drama about a CIA rookie who works to find a mole in the Agency. "The Recruit" opens tomorrow and is rated PG-13 for violence, sexuality and language.
|
|
By Lindsay Utz
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Thursday January 30, 2003
The best thing about watching "The Recruit" is staring at Colin Farrell, the hot young Irish actor who does his sexy-smart-strong guy thing for two hours. Unlike lots of stars who know they're hot, this guy is even hotter because he doesn't seem to realize how hot he is.
Fortunately the movie is more than just a hot cast; in fact, it's pretty smart, sometimes witty and always deceiving. But above all, what's most fun about "The Recruit" is being sucked into the ultimate world of espionage where people play with cool gadgets, cool computers and cool security, bringing to life the surreal, but very real, cyber-world we sometimes forget we live in.
A psychological spy thriller, "The Recruit" does the twist-and-turn dance almost effortlessly through the use of effective canted angle shots, energetic camerawork, heart-pounding music, a pretty smart script, and some pretty good actors.
So there's this really smart guy, James Clayton (Colin Farrell) who is recruited by the cold, tough CIA recruiter Walter Burke (Al Pacino) and taken away to "the farm" where he and the other young recruits are trained to be intelligent agents and untouchable spies.
During training, Clayton falls for Layla (Bridget Moynahan), a fellow recruit. The two hot recruits have chemistry but they also have their games ÷ games that get more complicated as the film goes on, mounting into a world of paranoia for both the characters and the audience. Farrell and Moynahan aren't remarkable actors, not yet at least, but they're pretty convincing in their genuine affection and very real mistrust of one another.
Yet what really holds the film together is the man himself, Mr. Al Pacino. Without Pacino in charge, this movie would not work as well as it does. There are many mediocre attempts made at the psychological thriller, but you need a man like Pacino to get the job done, and get it done right.
I still haven't gotten over "Scarface" and, well, Pacino absolutely frightens me, like he's on the verge of cracking at any moment, ready to point the gun at my head. I think I was even scared of him in "Scent of a Woman." Regardless, in "The Recruit" he is once again the tough boss, embodying a semi-composed-but-totally-psycho-under-the-surface character.
Seeing what goes on behind the closed doors of the CIA is probably the most intriguing aspect of the film. Not that the rest isn't good, but it's always thrilling to see what you're not supposed to see · like in reality television where we see what happens behind the scenes, as if we're being let in on a big secret, and secrets are what make this movie so successful.
My only complaint about the film is that it gets a little wild at the end, a bit over the top, and becomes rather implausible. But if you wanted something that made sense, you wouldn't have gone to a Hollywood blockbuster in the first place. And it really doesn't matter if it makes sense or not because it's a fun ride, a good solid thriller with lots of surprises and some really hot actors.
