The Recruit is one of those movies that manage to entertain on the surface as long as one is willing to not scratch underneath for any signs of intelligence. Colin Farrell plays James Clayton, a young man recruited to the CIA by aging agent Walter Burke (Al Pacino with big hair, hamming it up every step of the way). You see his father died mysteriously in 1990 while working as a covert agent for the U.S. government and James assumes that Burke worked with, or at least knew, his father. As it turns out none of this is really pertinent to the plot but it gives James a motive for abandoning a more lucrative career with Dell and enduring the rigorous training at the CIA's facility known as 'The Farm'.
Once there he meets, and is immediately attracted to, fellow trainee Layla (Bridget Moynahan). They flirt with each other and form a bond, of sorts; all the while Burke is bombastically and incessantly reminding them "Everything is a test."
The first half of the movie is the more enjoyable. Watching the young men and women go through the intense physical and psychological training, however unrealistic and exaggerated, is engrossing. Also at this point in the story we are not really sure where everything is heading, although we have a feeling that there is a joker in the deck somewhere.
Later, when James is actually working on a mission, the story starts to fall apart. It turns into a standard thriller with the prerequisite car chase and gunplay scenes. Everything builds to a rather implausible and unsatisfactory climax.
The cast is certainly not the problem. Colin Farrell has the goods to become a major star, ditto for Bridget Moynahan and Pacino remains a riveting and powerful presence on the screen even if he seems to be playing a parody of himself these days. They should try it again with a better script and different director at the helm.
