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The Recruit
Directed by: Roger Donaldson

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Even though The Recruit evokes more rah than raw, and the draftee doesn’t shoot hoops or hit ‘em out of the ballpark, this is one semi-pro effort that lacks the seasoning to enter the “bigs.” And leaving behind all reference to professional sports, the formally titled The Farm (an equally deceptive title), is a mess of a movie that botches both the basic training of a CIA operative and his first assignment in the field.

Stripping this yarn back to its essentials reveals, like the Great Oz, that behind the curtain there’s nothing of substance. There is bluster, furtive looks, the notion of danger, but precious little to connect these components in a manner that would make us care about the story or its characters. And, did I mention, it doesn’t really have a story or provide us with more than the outline of anything remotely human.

While I can’t vouch for the verisimilitude of flamboyant recruiters plowing the fields of academia and Silicon Valley in search of young men and women to protect our figurative borders (more plausible than drawing from the ranks of game show producers), I can swallow it as a dramatic device. Walter Burke (Al Pacino) is such a man, a self-possessed larger than life former field agent who appears cut from the same cloth as a Broadway producer like David Merrick rather than someone capable of disappearing in a crowd.

His target is wizard computer programmer James Clayton (Colin Farrell) whose father, an executive with an oil company, may or my not have done black op stuff on the side. Burke milks that ambiguity and Clayton, anxious to learn anything, suckles up and enlists in the rigorous training program of deceit, observation and physical and mental torture.

It’s doubtful that the Agency opened this aspect of its operations to the film’s trio of writers. However, they appear well schooled in how past movies have dealt with the basic education of spies and military folk and, judging from what’s on screen, were particularly impressed by An Officer and a Gentleman. It affords them the opportunity to cultivate a romantic liaison between Clayton and another hopeful, Layla Moore (Bridget Moynahan).

While it’s usually fun to see process, one shouldn’t lose sight of narrative momentum. Here the filmmakers resort to the same sort of dirty tricks one anticipates from covert operatives. Clayton believes he’s washed out of the program when he buckles under a simulated kidnapping and subsequent torture. But it’s a ruse to set up his first assignment. Burke wants him to get even closer to Layla who’s been identified as a deep sleeper (a long dormant mole) and find out to what evil foreign power the Farsi-speaking lass is slipping our vital secrets.

The thread running through The Recruit is that nothing is quite what it seems. Burke is a bombastic combination of puppet master and magician and Clayton is one big dope. If this in any way resembles actual field maneuvers this country is in for a very rough ride.

Again, one has to assume the CIA wasn’t terribly co-operative or forthcoming with Hollywood. The filmmakers eventually get lost in the labyrinth of twists and double crosses that function as plot. It’s artless, sloppy and very,very silly. About the only thing I believe in the film is that the Agency, unlike the FBI, would turn a blind eye to Clayton’s splendid tattoo perched on his shoulder.

A Buena Vista release of a Birnbaum/Barber production. Produced by Roger Birnbaum, Jeff Apple, Gary Barber. Director, Roger Donaldson. Screenplay, Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer, Mitch Glazer. Camera, Stuart Dryburgh. Editor, David Rosenbloom. Music, Klaus Badelt. Production design, Andrew McAlpine. Costumes, Beatrix Aruna Pasztor.

Cast: Al Pacino (Walter Burke), Colin Farrell (James Clayton), Bridget Moynahan (Layla), Gabriel Macht (Zack), Eugene Lipinski (Husky Man).

-- by Leonard Klady

 

Release Date: January 31, 2003
Rated: PG-13

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Starring: Al Pacino, Colin Farrell, Bridget Moynahan, Gabriel Macht, Kenneth Mitchell
Directed by: Roger Donaldson
Produced by: Gary Barber,
Jeff Apple, Roger Birnbaum
Written by: Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer, Akiva Goldsman,
Mitch Glazer

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Distributor: Touchstone

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Review Date: February 2, 2003