The Recruit

Directed by Roger Donaldson, The Recruit follows Colin Farrell’s James Clayton as he begins a rigorous stint in the CIA after being scouted by Al Pacino’s mysterious Walter Burke. Filmmaker Donaldson, armed with a script by Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer, Mitch Glazer, delivers a mostly watchable yet palpably erratic endeavor that fares best in its briskly-paced first half, as the movie benefits from its smattering of tense, exciting action sequences and uniformly engaging performances – with, in terms of the latter, Farrell and Pacino turning in charismatic work that goes a long way towards smoothing over the script’s increasingly pronounced bumps and lulls. It’s clear, then, that The Recruit‘s inability to become the consistently enthralling thriller one might’ve anticipated stems from its wildly overlong running time and almost egregiously complicated storyline, and there’s little doubt, as a result, that the drawn-out third act, complete with a somewhat laughable scene wherein the villain spells out the entirety of his/her plan, is hardly as electrifying (and satisfying) as Donaldson has very obviously intended – which does, in the end, cement the film’s place as a decent-enough piece of work that rarely lives up to the potential afforded by its premise and talented cast.

**1/2 out of ****