[Screen It]

 

"THE GOOD SHEPHERD"
(2006) (Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie) (R)

If you've come from our parental review of this film and wish to return to it, simply click on your browser's BACK button.
Otherwise, use the following link to read our complete Parental Review of this film.

QUICK TAKE:
Drama: A U.S. government agent tries to find out who tipped off the enemy in the botched Bay of Pigs invasion, all as we see his formative years in the agency leading up to that point.
PLOT:
It's 1961 and the American-led Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba has failed, leading CIA agent Ray Brocco (JOHN TURTURRO) to tell his cohort Edward Wilson (MATT DAMON) that he believes they have a mole somewhere in their midst. This is troubling to Edward as he's been with intelligence agency since its inception under the guidance of Bill Sullivan (ROBERT DE NIRO) who was tapped by the President to help create a peacetime successor to the Office of Strategic Services. Under the command of Director Philip Allen (WILLIAM HURT) and his subordinate Richard Hayes (LEE PACE), Edward sets out to find the source of the leak about the invasion, meaning he has little time for his wife Margaret (ANGELINA JOLIE) or their adult son, Edward Jr. (EDDIE REDMAYNE).

As he does, we see various flashbacks to the events that transformed Edward into the agent he'd become, starting with his induction into Yale's Skull & Bones secret society in 1939, a time during which he got "Clover," a.k.a. Margaret, a fraternal brother's sister, pregnant despite dating him deaf student Laura (TAMMY BLANCHARD). It's during those school years that FBI agent Sam Murach (ALEC BALDWIN) approaches Edward to have him report on the questionable social activities of poetry professor Dr. Fredericks (MICHAEL GAMBON), an act that introduces the young man to the world of espionage.

Shortly after marrying Margaret, Edward is sent to post WWII Europe, where he meets English counterparts such as Arch Cummings (BILLY CRUDUP) and soon becomes involved in counterespionage against the Russians who are also after German war secrets and technology. As the years pass by, Edward becomes even deeper entrenched in the spy world, leading to marital issues back home. With his story unfolding in those flashbacks, Edward continues to try to find the source of the leak from somewhere within his organization, unsure of the potential ramifications should he succeed.

OUR TAKE: 5.5 out of 10
Having lived in the greater Washington, D.C. area for the past two decades, I've obviously come into contact -- both knowingly and certainly unknowingly -- with individuals who work for the more secretive agencies of the U.S. Government and military. Among those who've admitted to as much, some can freely say what they do or did, while others can't or won't.

The latter had led to interesting conversations among the spouses of said workers, including one wife who has no idea what her husband exactly does and thus obviously has to come up with unique responses when quizzed about his vocation. The interesting thing is she once applied to another such agency, and had she gotten the job, she wouldn't have been able to tell him what she did, which would certainly have made for an interesting relationship.

If that sounds a bit like "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," it's probably not far from the point, albeit without all of the requisite action and gunplay. Coincidentally or not, one of that film's stars, Angelina Jolie, appears in another film about government agents, spies and secrets, "The Good Shepherd."

This time, however, Jolie only plays a spouse married to a government agent back in the early days of the Central Intelligence Agency. He's played by Matt Damon as a close to the vest spook who's upset that the U.S. attempt to overthrow Cuba's Fidel Castro was revealed by someone before it occurred, resulting in its failure.

With the main clue being a grainy photo and muffled audio recording of what looks and sounds like two lovers in flagrante delicto, he and others in the agency -- including his partner played by John Turturro -- try to get to the bottom and flush out the mole among them. Yet, rather than being a straightforward and linear dramatic thriller, director Robert De Niro (in his second trip behind the camera following "A Bronx Tale") and screenwriter Eric Roth opt to mix that with a series of flashbacks showing the origins of the CIA as well as the induction of Damon's character into that world.

Clearly ambitious, the film is both too long and too short in covering all of that material. Jumping back and forth between 1961 and various preceding years beginning with the young man's college life in 1939, the picture obviously has a lot of time, ground, and material to cover.

Characters and storylines are more than plentiful, but beyond Damon's being the obvious focus of what occurs, much of the rest unfortunately feel a bit shortchanged simply due to the sheer quantity at play. Accordingly, and without many of those elements getting the necessary time to engage the viewer, the already nearly 160 minute film resultantly feels rather lengthy.

The theme, naturally, is all about lies and secrets, and how they can both serve and destroy those individuals and governments who employ and deploy them with relative but obviously well-calculated ease. That starts with Edward's childhood and the suicide of his father (Timothy Hutton), and moves through his later induction into the Skull and Bones secret society at Yale, involvement in post-WWII Germany and more.

In doing so, the filmmakers throw all sorts of related elements into that mix, ranging from the Pigs fiasco, to sexual affairs, U.S. and Russian spy encounters, and the strained marriage of Damon and Jolie's characters resulting from his secretive job that keeps him both physically and emotionally distant from her.

Of course, the "fun" in watching such serious and supposedly realistic spy films (in contrast to the more fictional ones such as the James Bond pics and such) is in keeping up with all of the characters from the various agencies (and countries), figuring out what each is up to, and trying to differentiate the good from the bad and who's going to get the proverbial (and possibly literal) knife in the back when they drop their guard.

Since the film repeatedly comes back to the aforementioned photo and audio tape, we obviously know the payoff's going to be related to that. With Damon's character seen having various affairs, we wonder if this might result in a sort of "No Way Out" revelation. The problem, however, is that we're never really given the chance to care.

While it's all fascinating stuff in theory, the aforementioned shortchanging of characters and storylines, as well as Damon's subdued performance (accurately done for such a persona) result in viewers being kept at an arm's distance from the proceedings. Thus, while we watch with interest in how things are going to play out, it's not as gripping an experience as it probably could have been.

Performances from the rest of the stellar cast -- including Alec Baldwin, Michael Gambon, Billy Crudup, William Hurt, De Niro, and even "2001's" Keir Dullea -- are solid across the board, but most of them likewise are gypped in terms of having enough screen time to make their characters real people who draw us in.

It's no secret that's what makes good films great, but this one's characters and stories are just nebulous enough -- which, I suppose, is appropriate considering the subject matter -- that the overall effort feels like it's holding back on us. "The Good Shepherd" rates as a 5.5 out of 10.




Reviewed December 5, 2006 / Posted December 22, 2006


Privacy Statement and Terms of Use and Disclaimer
By entering this site you acknowledge to having read and agreed to the above conditions.

All Rights Reserved,
©1996-2023 Screen It, Inc.