Review of The Good Shepherd (2006) by Sam — 03 Aug 2007

This film -- which I watched again last night for a second time -- is clearly not your typical spy thriller movie that many reviewers seem to have expected. It's too bad that more people don't have patience for careful filmmaking, thoughful exposition, great acting, and extraordinary ambiguity.

This is the genius of the story and how DeNiro realized it. What many seem to complain about -- it is slow, it is enigmatic, it is confusing, it is even dull -- is true, in the same sense that reading LeCarre is slow, enigmatic, confusing, and even dull.

But let that not detract from a powerful evocation -- a much truer evocation than most "spy" movies -- of what espionage is all about, and the true human emotions that must be faced and overcome (or not) by a protagonist in Wilson (Damon's) position.

This is a psychological thriller of great magnitude that probably suffered by being marketed as a spy movie. Painstakingly made, detailed, and very true to the human experience if not the Bond one. I like Bond, and Bourne, but for gut-wrenching truth, give me more movies like this.

A tour de force. Damon is terrific, Angelina Jolie perfectly cast as either the jilted spouse or the conniving college girl ensuring her future by entrapping a promising husband. She's both. It's an enigma -- the movie is an enigma, and life is an enigma.

Nothing is what it seems to anyone at the time -- and this is perfectly conveyed throughout this excellent movie.