The Recruit (2003)

Director: Roger Donaldson

Writers: Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer, Mitch Glazer

Composer: Klaus Badelt

Starring: Al Pacino, Colin Farrell, Bridget Moynahan, Gabriel Macht, Kenneth Mitchell, Mike Realba, Ron Lea, Karl Pruner

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Trust. Betrayal. Deception. In the C.I.A. nothing is what it seems.

Plot: A brilliant young CIA trainee is asked by his mentor to help find a mole in the Agency.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Try not to think about this one and you'll be better for it except an hour in it'll probably hit you without too much effort.  Pacino is fun and Farrell does a fine job.  I like how the story plays with convention and cliches but what I don't like is how it gave up on those in the third act and decides to roll with a few.  That was shit.   Really.  It's one little twist after another and in the final half hour it goes typical Hollywood and rides that train 'till it gets to the station.  What a crock of shit.  Because of that, it boils down to no longer caring about the characters (except the wild Pacino man doin' his thing) or their fates.  What a missed opportunity.  How would I have liked it to have gone?  Beats me.  That would require me to spend time with this and that's not gonna happen.  The Touchstone DVD has some extras that I'm not going to watch like a 16 minute featurette Spy School: Inside the CIA Training Program...you know, like they're REALLY going to tell you a single truth about how they train (ugh), 4 deleted scenes with optional commentary from Donaldson and Farrell, and an audio commentary with the pair.  It's neat that Farrell participated at that level with the commentaries.  It's a real shame the ending went conventional after spending so much time (at least seemingly) trying to do something different in building up to it.