The Recruit

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 105 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The Recruit is a political thriller from the same director who brought us No Way Out and Thirteen Days. With that kind of pedigree plus Al Pacino on board our expectations for this movie were pretty high. And although the film didn’t quite live up to expectations, it is still quite entertaining.

The Recruit

Colin Farrell co-stars as James Clayton. He’s at the top of his class at MIT and being recruited by big companies seeking his skills. However, another type of “company” comes calling. Enter Pacino as CIA agent Walter Burke, a man with a self proclaimed hell of an eye for talent, and he wants Clayton for the Agency.

He gets his man, and we follow James’ progress and get a look at CIA training procedures which include not only physical skills but lots of mind games. Burke tells the recruits that “nothing is as it seems”, and “everything is a test”. Pretty soon the story takes us down a path where neither the characters or the audience are quite sure what’s real and what’s not.

Do not overanalyze this movie as there are enough illogical bits and technical errors in it to drive you nuts. If anyone believes CIA training remotely resembles anything you see here, please contact me about my Montana beach property. And the speed with which we see CIA computers getting hacked including watching the way in which they do it will drive anyone with a hacking background or just good technical knowledge nuts.

But if you put your brain in neutral and just sit back and enjoy the show, what you’ll find in The Recruit is what will be a very under-rated Al Pacino performance. He does a wonderful job with this character and is the highlight of the movie. But he makes this kind of role look so easy, that he doesn’t get much credit for the strength of the performance. However, if you’re a Pacino fan or you just like a good spook movie, there are a lot worse ways to spend a couple of hours.

Posted by MFG Staff | Filed Under 3 Stars, Al Pacino, Bridget Moynahan, Colin Farrell, Gabriel Macht, Kenneth Mitchell, PG-13, Theatrical, Thriller