Some movies are good because of their director, while others are good in spite of their director. Such is the case with Spy Game, the new thriller which teams Redford with Pitt, directed by Tony Scott who doesn't seem to know enough to just stay out of the way of the story and instead is constantly butting into the film with freeze-frame shots which are supposed to emphasize the importance time plays in the movie, but only distracts from it instead. What could have been a solid and intensely engrossing film is merely a good and mildly interesting one due in large part to the choppy direction and editing.
Redford plays veteran CIA agent Nathan Muir who gets the news, on the day of his retirement, that a former protégé of his, Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt), has been captured by the Chinese on the eve of US/China trade talks. The agency wants the whole mess to just go away, even if it means sacrificing Bishop, but Nathan, out of a sense of loyalty and guilt, will do anything to save him.
The story is told mainly in flashback. The action in the present, apart from the opening scene of Bishop's capture, is mainly in the form of men in suits sitting around a conference table or Nathan making urgent phone calls. The flashbacks detail Bishop's induction into the CIA and his training by Nathan. Together they share many adventures, but not ideology as Nathan's is "The mission at all cost. All assets, human or otherwise are expendable". While Bishop's are more about loyalty to people rather than principles.
It is this clash of ideals between the protagonists that really drives the film. The chemistry between Pitt and Redford is perfect and probably owes something to the fact that they've worked together before as director and star (A River Runs Through It), and the mentor and pupil setup here closely resembles that relationship. All of the scenes in which they appear together are riveting.
Clearly however, this is Redford's film. He carries it along with his narration, so that even in the scenes he doesn't appear in, you feel his presence. Pitt is obviously playing the supporting character, which again fits in with the character's dynamics.
They are really the only fully rounded characters in the movie, the rest of the characters really being just two-dimensional stereotypes. The closed-minded, suited CIA bureaucrats, the loyal secretary, and the liberal girlfriend working to better the world. But as they are just satellites rotating around the Redford star, it doesn't really hurt the film.
What does hurt the film is Tony Scott's direction. Nathan has 24 hours to save Bishop's life. To illustrate that fact, we are constantly being barraged with the sudden freeze-frame of someone or something, the time flashed on the screen, and overly dramatic music blared at us. Often this happens at inopportune times, barging in on moments of no real drama and instead of giving us a sense of urgency, it takes us out of the movie and thus the sense that time is passing.
In another scene Nathan and Bishop meet atop the roof of a building after a mission, in which Nathan forced Bishop to use a man as bait and ended up getting the man killed. It's an intense scene and well acted, but we are subjected to swooping camera shots from a helicopter and thus distracted from some great acting. The whole setup is reminiscent of a scene from the movie Enemy of the State, also directed by Scott, in which Gene Hackman and Will Smith share a dramatic moment on a rooftop.
Closer to Le Carre than Fleming, this was a movie that could have been dramatic and exciting, but instead falls short of its potential due to its director, who it seems would rather have been directing a Bond film. Still if you are a Redford or Pitt fan, this one is definitely worth watching.
