As I was exiting the theatre, I overheard a fellow viewer remark that this “was a good spy thriller.” I could not help but think to myself: maybe… if you don’t like your thrillers to be very thrilling.
The Good Shepherd marks Robert De Niro’s foray into the world of directing. It is the life story, painstakingly complete, of Edward Wilson (Matt Damon), an intelligence pioneer in an America that was just beginning to define the concept.
The film traces Wilson from his college days, through recruitment, marriage, child-rearing, Cold War politics, betrayal, tough decisions, and practically into the nursing home (well, not quite).
Angelina Jolie plays Wilson’s underfed wife – both in the emotional and literal sense (there is heavy arm-vein visibility throughout). De Niro himself appears as General Sullivan, the madly patriotic genius responsible for creating the C.I.A. Several other stars appear as well. It is actually a pretty impressive cast.
The film itself, on the other hand, is less so. It is one of those plots that wants to appear so smart that it ends up just a confused ball of saying-nothingness. One might posit that the intention was to mirror the confusion and suspicion as experienced by our hero Wilson, as he tried to navigate his way through the Cold War. To that, I would say mission accomplished – I certainly felt confused and betrayed. Unfortunately, when things clear up for Wilson and a statement is made about the corruption and failures of the system, I just could not catch up. Or perhaps I had just stopped caring. Which brings me to my next criticism; it is way too long.
De Niro and writer Eric Roth have taken this cluttered plot and spread it into nearly three hours of screen time. They seem to have conspired to ensure that everyone in the audience who is confused and frustrated also gets to experience boredom. My brain gave up at around the two hour mark and my bladder did not last much longer. I was a lost cause.
The Good Shepherd is not all bad. Damon is at the peak of his career of late and his cold, calculated distance is at times chilling. Also, the film looks nice and the soundtrack is unobtrusive. And there’s a really neat shot of a woman falling out of a plane.
On the whole, however, it is convoluted, bloated, messy and flat. As we get older, it is these precise characteristics which we inevitably embody and De Niro’s age is most definitely showing.
His chosen pace will appeal to a certain age bracket and, in my mind, it is no coincidence that the viewer who used the term “thriller” in describing the film happened to be on the more mature end of the scale. If you must see it, my advice would be to grab a grandparent… and forgo the large Cokes.
