The Good Shepherd

CinemaSerf: So rather than spend a fortune on special disguises, plastic surgery and prosthetics, the secret of being a successful counter-intelligence agent is loads of Bryclream, a pair of thick-set spectacles and a fawn, knee-length, mac. That's what puts the c into overt! That theory sort works for Matt Damon here with this lacklustre drama set around the time in world history when the American government realised they needed to gather intelligence about whom their potential 20th century foes might be. He is "Edward Wilson", who after being sworn into some top secret masonic style of society at school finds himself learning the arts of espionage in a wartorn London, then to Berlin, the back to Uncle Sam where his accrued skills leave him well placed to root out Nazi sympathisers and Soviet agents and defectors. Initially he is full of the joys of spring, his task a patriotic duty. Increasingly, though, as his hastily arranged marriage to "Margaret" (the sparingly used Angelina Jolie) starts to suffer, cynicism creeps in and what semblance of decency he had begins to become subsumed into a determination to get results - regardless of the methods frequently employed by his sidekick "Ray" (John Turturro). Robert De Niro clearly has pulling power with his directorial promise, but most of the supporting cast add little to this muddling drama that trips over it's own cloak way too often looking for the dagger. Quite where Billy Crudup's accent came from is anyone's guess and the plodding nature of this rather wearisome, if stylishly filmed, drama makes it quite a slog to sit through. It's all just a bit too self-indulgent and presents us with a rather ungracious and arrogant side to an American superiority complex that I found a bit dull.