Review of The Good Shepherd (2006) by Jim R — 09 Oct 2009

I loved De Niro's first film A Bronx Tale. This film is not as good, but to be fair it is entirely different. It is an interesting character study of the kind of person who excels at being a CIA agent. There is a cloak of secrecy about everything he does throughout his entire life, starting from childhood. By the time the water-boarding scene occurred it was clear to me that De Niro's point is to criticize the overstepping powers of the CIA in the Bush (W) era .

Here is what I didn't like: The film jumps around in time a lot, which is fine, but they should have taken more time to age Matt Damon. This made the film confusing because he doesn't appear to age over the course of twenty years or so. There are scenes with his son where they both look the same age. The story is too convoluted and too long. My wife fell asleep she was so bored. The music always seems to be suspenseful as if something is going to happen, and rarely does anything happen. Even in the credits the music still has this creepy "something is going to happen" feel.

Also, hasn't Matt Damon played this character before in every single movie he is in?