The Recruit Review
by Bob Bloom (bobbloom AT iquest DOT net)January 30th, 2003
THE RECRUIT (2003) 2 stars out of 4. Starring Al Pacino, Colin Farrell, Bridget Moynahan, Gabriel Macht, Mike Realba and Dom Fiore. Music by Klaus Badelt. Screenplay by Roger Towne and Kurt Wimmer and Mitch Glazer. Directed by Roger Donaldson. Rated PG-13. Running time: 105 minutes.
The Recruit plays mind games with its audience, but the smoke and mirrors are put to use more as distractions from the flaws in the movie's storyline.
Because it deals with the machinations of the CIA we are told, ad nausea, that "nothing is what it seems." This message is sledgehammered home every 10 minutes or so throughout the film's nearly 105-minute running time.
Basically, a film that continually has to reiterate its most important message has problems. Like the guy who persistently tells his girlfriend he loves her, he does so not to reassure her, but to convince himself of the fact.
The Recruit is a paranoidís dream, as it follows the recruitment and drilling of computer whiz James Clayton (Colin Farrell) into the dark world of subterfuge. Recruiter Walter Burke (Al Pacino) also is one of Clayton's instructors at "The Farm," the CIA training facility.
Here the various recruits receive physical and mental indoctrination. They also are constantly tested, repeatedly told not to trust anyone and endlessly reminded that "enemies are all around us."
Clayton and another recruit, Layla (Bridget Moynahan), strike up a competitive relationship undercut by sexual tension.
Clayton has other issues as well. His father, an oil company executive, was reportedly killed in a plane crash in Peru when James was a child. But was he actually working for the agency, and did he die in the line of duty?
These are among the red herring issues that weigh down The Recruit in an attempt to give it substance.
For in reality, The Recruit is rather colorless and hollow. A lack of chemistry, of sexual combustion is non-existent. The scruffy Farrell and pretty, but bland Moynahan fail to ignite any sparks.
Writers Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer and Mitch Glazer spend so much time creating twists and turns to confound the viewer that after a while you just give up and lose interest.
It doesn't help that Pacino gives one of those annoying mannered performances that grates upon you. It's almost like some comic doing a bad Al Pacino impression.
For moviegoers who like cinematic jigsaw puzzles, The Recruit will offer some satisfaction.
Overall, however, it falls short of the mark, throwing too many diversions and cluttering up the storyline with an abundance of useless excess.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] or at [email protected]. Other reviews by Bloom can be found at www.jconline.com by clicking on movies.
Bloom's reviews also appear on the Web at the Rottentomatoes Web site, www.rottentomatoes.com and at the Internet Movie Database:
http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
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