The Recruit

The Recruit (2003) begins with a computer graduate from MIT being recruited by the CIA. James Clayton goes to the training facility known as the Farm. The first rule taught there is that nothing is what it seems, and across the training it becomes impossible for him to tell real tests from scripted exercises. That uncertainty is the idea. The audience is kept at exactly Clayton's level of knowledge, and whether any given scene is real or an exercise is left open until the end. Roger Donaldson directed. Al Pacino plays the instructor Walter Burke, Colin Farrell plays Clayton, and Bridget Moynahan another recruit. Its relationship with the CIA is interesting. The agency gave the production limited support and permitted filming outside the headquarters at Langley, in a period when it was loosening its relations with cinema. The best of it is the training: building a false identity, running surveillance and the polygraph sequences are concrete and absorbing. The problems start once the training ends. It runs 115 minutes. Good for: espionage thrillers, stories about training, and Al Pacino. Less good for: the second half runs on stacked surprises and the last one is guessable. The depiction of technology was exaggerated even for its moment. The romance never rises above serving the plot.