The Recruit

Top CIA trainee James Clayton (Colin Farrell) is recruited by Walter Burke (Al Pacino) as a virtuoso computer programmer with the unlikely ability to use his laptop to wirelessly take over television screens and computer networks. You might be able to guess that this talent will save the day in this solidly average foray into the world of young CIA rookies.

After Clayton survives gruelling and somewhat absurd training at "the farm", he must find a mole in the Agency. Of course, to complicate matters there is a love interest in the shape of fellow recruit, Layla Moore (Bridget Moynahan). Layla's role seems principally to advertise the usefulness of insulated containers that you can take your coffee to work in. That's harsh buut product placement really grates with me.

Whilst the screenplay strives for some complexity, it is undermined by the relentless theme that nothing in the CIA is what it seems. The multiple authors became a little fixated on this. It is difficult not to identify the film's red herrings - there's almost a tangible stench to them. The film is also fiercely patriotic and generally unswerving in its admiration of the CIA, which I also found unsettling.

Al Pacino can do this sort of thing in his sleep, while Farrell and Moynahan are competent, if unlikely looking/sounding/acting, CIA operatives struggling through a distracting romance. Director Roger Donaldson has done a professional, if unremarkable, job. His film does have its moments, particularly in some of the CIA training scenarios but as any of the Bourne films amply demonstrate, there are much better spy thrillers around than this

 

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