The Recruit

Techie whizzkid James Clayton (played by Colin Farrell) has been searching for his father all his life. When Walter Burke (played by Al Pacino) turns up and says he knew him, Clayton is intrigued and follows him on a course of introduction into the CIA (played by Central Intelligence Agency).

During training he hooks up with Layla (played by Bridget Moynahan) who may or may not be a spy. Clayton is supposed to weed out her details and find out to whom she’s connected and so a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues between she and Clayton, and Clayton and Burke. Don’t worry if you’re confused; you’re supposed to be.

It's at once a film that starts going somewhere, changes course and goes somewhere else, and then tries to turn back but ends up going somewhere else again. Whilst quite watchable with Farrell playing a decent role (after Daredevil I had my fears) and Pacino his usual standard of quality; in this case, grizzled veteran training the new guy, Moynahan is the real surprise here. Her contribution lends full paranoia to the confusion of Clayton and leads well to the inexorable conclusion.

Being so recently in cinemas, The Recruit looks fantastic in its 1.78:1 aspect with 16:9 enhancement. Buena Vista always produce a quality transfer and this is the case here. A very clean picture with no visible artefacts and all colours are as they should be. Blacks are nice and rich and shadows hide no details. Being about intrigue and espionage and stuff, there are the compulsory running-around-at-night shots and these are all delivered with precision clarity. Even the flesh tones look great, unfortunately giving us too much information about Pacino’s ever-craggier visage.

This nice clean transfer has produced sound that is just super. Dialogue is easier to understand than the plot twists and turns, which certainly helps matters greatly. Pacino shows his excellence as an actor with a Southern accent that sounds like it was stronger 20 years ago, but is now softened by being away from home so long. This is quite something, though with its indistinctness, it tends to come and go a little throughout the movie. Music is great, with only limited use of pre-recorded songs over a composed score, but for a bar or nightclub scene here and there. The score, on that note, is quite excellent and well placed within the film, building suspense where needs be and tension or despair and even confusion whenever required. All levels are good between each sound factor and that includes the well-edited sound effects as well. An all round super sound package and a credit to Buena Vista.

We only get a few bonuses, but they are an interesting, if small, batch. Introduced by a well made intro-to-menu screen when the disc opens, the first is a marvelous 16 minute Featurette on CIA Spy School. The school within the film is based on actual schools held by the CIA, making it appear all the more realistic. Having official CIA co-operation employed within the making of the movie and this featurette makes for incredibly interesting and informative viewing. Very nice.

There then follow four Deleted Scenes which have an Optional Audio Commentary explaining why they were cut. These are also presented at 1.78:1, but not enhanced, and do help add to the humanity of Farrell’s character within the film, but I guess all scenes can't make it. An interesting sidebar here in that the Audio Commentary has Farrell’s numerous 'F' words bleeped out. I’d never heard that done before. Finally, there is a regular Audio Commentary that includes Farrell and director Roger Donaldson patting each other on the back and praising fellow actors etc. Informative, but kinda like a buddy radio show that never plays songs.

The CIA is truly an intriguing institute and one best steered clear of if they treat everyone like the cadets in this film. However, competent performances all round and a sort of twist in the end do manage to keep interest alive throughout the entirety. Whilst certainly not one of Pacino’s better roles, he plays it Pacino style and that’s enough here. Farrell impresses in his role, as does Moynahan, but to me there isn’t the real chemistry there that the filmmakers were likely hoping for. Certainly not ruinous of the film, it adds to the bizarre secret theme in which nothing is as it seems. A very well made and well-shot film in which character performances bring alive what had the potential to be a rather ordinary story.