The Recruit

Guilty pleasure flick. All this film is is a well-designed passion play and I don't mean being passionate about your job or politics or that great food you had last night. Since it's a spy flick, you never know whom to believe, and that's supposed to be the point. The real point of the film is the overheated glances between Colin Farrell and Bridget Moynahan, who seem to be slumming at times and other times are actually not too bad. Al Pacino is fine in the beginning as the CIA recruiter, but towards the end gives the most over-the-top, embarrassing speech that I've seen on film in a long time. The content is not what's embarrassing, it's the delivery. Some reviewers are likening it to his histrionics in Dog Day Afternoon, but no, that was a stupendous acting job. This was not. Give this one a miss and instead see both of the leads in better films, namely Tigerland (Farrell) and Heat (Pacino). Unless, of course, you just want to watch a "comfort flick" on a rainy, boring, nothing-else-to-do day.

year: 2003
length: 115 min.
rating: 2.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292506/combined