The Recruit (2003)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer, and Mitch Glazer
Directed by Roger Donaldson
Starring Colin Farrell, Al Pacino, Bridget Moynahan, Gabriel Macht, Mike Realba

Features:

• Spy School: Inside the CIA Training Program documentary
  
• Deleted scenes with optional commentary
  
• Running audio commentary with director Donaldson and actor Farrell
  
• Trailers
  

Released by: Buena Vista
Region: 1
Rating: PG-13
Anamorphic: Yes

My Advice: Rent it. Spy genre die-hards might want to hang on to it.

James Clayton (Farrell) has the world on a string. Graduating top of his class from MIT with a promising new software package he's designed and job offers coming in from all over, the only thing that nags at him is his father. Clayton the elder, an oil executive, vanished over a decade ago in a plane crash in the Peruvian jungle, and has never been found. James maintains websites looking for info and hoping, but nothing has come of it. Then William Burke (Pacino) appears at the bar where Clayton slings drinks one night, dropping hints that he might know some things about the missing father. The catch is that if Clayton wants answers, he'll have to accept Burke's invitation to enter training with the CIA, rather than accept a six-figure salary from the guys at Dell.

Despite some reluctance, Clayton answers the call, and in short order finds himself immersed in the grueling training required of all new CIA operatives at the facility known only as "The Farm." Weapons, breaking and entering, computer intelligence gathering, and a healthy distrust for anybody and everybody are instilled into the new recruits. Despite frequently being placed at odds with one another in various exercises, Clayton falls for his lovely classmate Layla (Moynahan), though neither of them wants to fess up while they're in training. After a particularly brutal exercise, Clayton unfortunately washes out of the program, but Burke puts him up in a desk job in the CIA, with promises that all is not as it seems.

The Recruit is a tense thriller, with more than enough plot turns and twists to keep most viewers guessing up until the last act. Well-scripted and excellently paced, the story is steeped in the sorts of misinformation and distrust that are the hallmark of a solid espionage yarn (as opposed to explosive chase sequences in European luxury cars and improbable gadgets). Farrell is excellent, as is Pacino, and the younger actor actually holds his own quite well in scenes that could easily have been stolen by his elder. Moynahan has great chemistry with her co-star, and comes across as every bit as competent and capable of ruthlessness as any of the other agents.

The features are interesting, particularly the look inside the real-life Farm where the CIA trains its new recruits. The facility has been one of the most tightly guarded secrets of the U.S. intelligence community for decades, and the information and pictures presented in this documentary are a better look than one is likely to find most anywhere else. The commentary is pretty good, too, though mostly standard fare. I'd love to have heard Moynahan or Pacino's thoughts on the flick, but Farrell has interesting enough things to say himself.

If you're looking for a good spy flick, you could do a LOT worse than this one. And with the venerable Bond franchise listing hard to port, you'd be hard pressed to do much better with the current dearth of alternatives.