A movie called “The Recruit” sounds like it is destined to be generic. Unfortunately, the newest release by that title, starring Al Pacino, is just that.
“The Recruit” has all the makings of a blockbuster hit — it just doesn’t have all the makings of a great movie. It is, however, an entertaining use of two hours and that’s probably what will make it a success.
As the millions of commercials and movie trailers throughout the past month have shown, the film is about James Clayton (Colin Farrell), a top-notch MIT graduate who is recruited to join the CIA by Walter Burke (Pacino). Throw in the attractive female lead, Layla (Bridget Moynahan), and the cast of characters is complete.
The sad thing is, the previous statement is almost entirely true. The movie focuses so intently on these three characters that no one else in the film is memorable at all.
But even to say the movie focuses on three characters is a stretch — all three are not given equal consideration. Despite having a mega-star like Pacino on board, this is clearly Farrell’s movie.
His character is in nearly every scene as he is lured to the CIA by Burke, where he quickly proceeds to fall for Layla. Farrell does an adequate job, trying his best to be like Tom Cruise in “The Firm” (a movie with a very similar plot-line), but as expected, he clearly has a long way to go before he proves he deserves sharing a scene with Pacino.
Roger Donaldson, diector of “Thirteen Days” and “Cocktail,” creates an entertaining movie to watch, riding the popular trend to combine nearly every genre into one widely mass-marketed attempt at profit. There are moments of humor, romance, suspense and action.
The cinematography is nothing special, although there is one excellent fade-away from Farrell to Pacino seen through a car window — which is surprising, given the routine nature of nearly all the other shots in the movie.
The soundtrack is forgettable and the script is not especially clever, but there are occasional bright spots of dialogue scattered throughout.
One positive aspect of the script is that it strives to discuss a serious theme, something rare in action movies these days. The theme presented is about the nature of trust and deception. Clayton is never sure what is real and what is a test during his CIA training at “the farm,” and he is never sure who he can really trust. Of course, in a movie filled with only three real characters, he does have the luxury of a small pool to choose from.
The deception theme strikes a chord by the end of the movie, but Donaldson tries to drive his point home a little too hard. “Nothing is as it seems” is Burke’s favorite quote, which he says about five more times than he needs to.
Had the script been more subtle with regard to these issues, the underlying message probably would have been more effective.
As mentioned earlier, it’s not a tough movie to sit through. Part of the fun in watching is trying to decide whether to believe in Burke or Layla, or perhaps neither. There are the usual number of twists and turns, some of which make the film better and some which take away from its credibility.
At one point in the middle of the movie, the plot takes a very serious turn and appears to be heading into darker territory than most big budget action flicks. Without giving anything away, Clayton is forced to make a decision on who to trust and take serious action against the other.
For the next 20 minutes or so, the movie built on that momentum and had serious promise heading into the finale, but alas, things eventually fall apart.
Before they do, Donaldson has managed to produce enough excitement to keep his viewers interested until the climax. After the credits roll, those walking to the exits will have no problem quickly erasing what they just saw from their memory banks.
