Review of The Recruit (2003) by Duncan M — 26 Aug 2013

The story is about James Clayton played by Colin Farrell who is tapped to join the branch of American intelligence only to discover how complex and dangerous the job can really be. James is approached by Walter Burke played by Al Pacino who is a recruiter for the CIA and describes himself as "a scary judge of talent" and believes Clayton is just the sort of man the CIA is looking for.

James who has little interest in an ordinary nine-to-five and suspects his father worked for the Agency, accepts the offer and is soon sent to the CIA's secret training camp. It soon becomes obvious that Burke's intuition has not failed him as Clayton is smart, fast on his feet, a crack shot, and possesses a very agile mind.

James notices a few things in his training most notably one of his fellow students named Layla played by Bridget Moynahan whose skills equal equal on James'. James becomes quite infatuated with Layla but he also has to keep in mind Walter's dictum that "nothing is as it seems," especially when he is given an assignment to find the mole within the Agency's training program.

This stylish spy thriller is just amazing. I'm glad I own the DVD to this otherwise life would just suck even more. Al Pacino and Colin Farrell make two great leads and they both have great chemistry together.

People say that it was painfully obvious that Al was the villain in this movie. Ok how? this movie is a spy thriller, and I thought that both Walter and James were going to be the good guys. The fact that Walter became the bad guy just came out of nowhere.

How is this painfully obvious again? The Recruit gets a solid 8/10.