Thursday, January 10, 2008

A little more skin and we could have had an espionage a trois: "The Good Shepherd"

I mean, it's never a good sign when the only total nudity is a bunch of Yale men mud wresting with each other. What a drag.

This movie premiered on the day my daughter was born and went into wide release a couple of weeks later. Suffice it to say I was a little busy then and missed it in theaters. Caught it on cable not long ago, though, and while it requires a good chunk of time, it's a worthy investment.

Our story follows Matt Damon as Edward Wilson, a key figure in the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency. That's right, the CIA. We actually bounce back and forth between Edward now -- or rather, in 1961 -- and the years leading up to then. You know, to see how he got from here to there, and all the mess in between. There's also the device of solving a riddle in the present -- whether a mysterious film and tape reveal how the Bay of Pigs invasion failed -- to keep us interested in old Edward. Following young Eddie isn't so hard given all the "oh, so now this happens" stuff.

Along with Damon, there's a top-notch cast: Angelina Jolie as Damon's wife, Alec Baldwin as the FBI director, William Hurt as the CIA director, Robert De Niro (also the film's director ... so many directors!) as a general, Billy Crudup as a British intelligence guy, Michael Gambon as a college professor and John Turturro as Damon's assistant.

While most of these folks are good, the better performances come from lesser-known names: Lee Pace as another CIA guy, Hanna Schiller as a translator and Oleg Shtefanko as a Russian agent. The last might have been the best. I kept wondering where I had seen that guy before, but since I hadn't, it must have been wishful thinking. Really, the guy was good.

Some may argue that the story meanders along, and sure, I could see trimming a few scenes and maybe knocking the running time down by 15-20 minutes. Any more than that, though, and you risk damaging the ambitious scope of this movie, which covers a good 25 years. That actually worked well, I thought, probably because I didn't know anything about the CIA and liked seeing how it was borne out of World War II and evolved into a pretty big deal during the Cold War.

Damon is decent in the role; I bought him more as a college student than a fortysomething father. Generally he's better when he can emote a bit, and there's definitely no emoting here. There also isn't much in the Bourne movies, but this is a different animal, and a not altogether successful one. All that means is that he's capable, just not incredible. Jolie fares worse in a role that doesn't give her much to do. But hey, she shows she can do An Important Picture without it being a vehicle just for her, so good show there.

The rest of the players are solid, and in general I liked the movie. I'd place it above Bobby D's other, official directorial turn, "A Bronx Tale," which was a tad schmaltzy for me. At the very least, it'll do until Damon gets the stones to push through "EuroTrip 2: Donny Takes Amsterdam."

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