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THE RECRUIT Send This Review to a Friend
The CIA is the centerpiece of this thriller, and it comes across either as a promotion for the agency or an exposé, take it as you wish. Fortunately it has Al Pacino in another distinctive performance, and also interesting actor Colin Farrell. Pacino plays Walter Burke, the recruiter, Farrell portrays James Clayton, the recruit. Burke's method is ruthless and deceptive, all in the name of training a novice. Somewhere in the agency there's a mole. With film 101 knowledge of screenplays, you can probably sniff the course of the plot early, but abetted by the performances, director Roger Donaldson manages to work up atmosphere and tension.
The three screenwriters, Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer and Mitch Glazer work the basic idea, but wind up with an all-to-familiar type of face-off marked by improbabilities. But getting there is at least often involving. Clayton has a weakness. He wants to know what happened to his father who is supposed to have died in a plane crash, and Burke knows how to play this in order to lure Clayton into the CIA. The mix is made more interesting with attractive Bridget Moynahan as Layla, also a recruit. No surprise, Layla and Clayton develop an attraction for each other, a CIA no-no.
The paces through which the recruits are put are brutal and nasty, the need being to prepare those who make the grade for what they'll have to do on future assignments. This glimpse into the CIA, accurate or fanciful, makes agency look like a horrible organization with which to be affiliated. If you accept much of what goes on in "The Recruit," nobody is to be trusted.
But it is fun to watch Pacino in action. He thoroughly creates a character who has his own rulebook and knows how to get what he wants, making Clayton putty in his hands because Burke knows how to manipulate vulnerabilities. Clayton is basically a decent type who starts of as a computer whiz, a talent that he is going to need again before the film is over. It's primarily the cliched screenplay that lets us down. A Touchstone Pictures release.
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