The Recruit film review

certificate_12A

THE RECRUIT

It's easy to be seduced by its slickness and the conviction of its performers, but ultimately The Recruit amounts to little more than an impressive façade. One of the many oblique aphorisms uttered by Pacino's brusque CIA recruiter Walter Burke is "Nothing is what seems." In the case of The Recruit he's right. What initially seems like it might be something turns out to be nothing.

In its strained efforts to appear clever it forgets about providing a point or making its characters anything other than good looking, smart talking pawns in a convoluted chess game. The Recruit's unabashed allusions to James Bond extend beyond its reliance on fancy gadgets, but it sadly lacks the humour and invention of the 007 films.

Colin Farrell plays James Clayton, a cocky computer whiz who graduated top of his class at MIT. Approached by Burke, Clayton's initial scepticism turns to intrigue when Burke makes reference to his father. Thinking the CIA and his father's mysterious death linked, Clayton joins the recruiting program in the hope of finding answers. He is sent, along with other recruits, to the CIA training facility dubbed the Farm where he meets the beautiful Layla (Bridget Moynahan).

"Everything is a test," declares Burke, as the recruits are put through increasingly elaborate psychological and physical trials. Things get confusing as Burke's line about nothing being what it seems is exploited to the fullest. Exactly who is who and what's happening gets garbled as the plot twists come thick and fast to the point where figuring things out would be futile, even if you could be bothered. It's a testament to those involved that they at least were able to evince the notion they knew what they were doing.

Farrell has a brooding intensity and mischievousness that makes watching him more entertaining than some of his films. Pacino is generally worth the price of admission, even while treading familiar ground as he is here. Their scenes together at least offered the prospect of something more fulfilling, but they too become victims to the film's overriding goal, which is to dazzle us with bright lights in the hope of blinding us to its flaws.