Cinema Hype

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, movies were brain candy. People went to the theater to escape, to kick back, to tune out for awhile. With The Good Shepherd, it appears that that era is over (Reno 911!: Miami notwithstanding). This movie is long, complex, and brainy, and it expects the audience to keep up. Thankfully, it’s more or less worth the investment.

The Good Shepherd is about a man (Edward Wilson, played by Matt Damon) entwined with the roots of the Central Intelligence Agency from World War II through the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961. It’s a hard movie to place: character study or spy movie? Both? Neither? The story is leisurely and the pace is slow, tracing twenty-five years of Wilson’s life. We see the choices he makes, the way he deals with the people around him, the way he operates. On the other hand, little is wasted here: director Robert DeNiro laces Wilson’s life with clues. Every character is a connection and every action has a reaction until the plot suddenly materializes about three-quarters of the way into the script. It’s subtle and it requires some brain power, but DeNiro makes it feel both epic and very, very detailed.

Not everything about The Good Shepherd quite rings true. The expectation that the audience will keep up with the story is flattering, but a few of the dots could be easier to connect. The cast is large and the story is full of double-crossing, so that it’s sometimes unclear exactly who is playing whom, and why. There’s also a startling torture scene that feels a little bit too political in its modernity. Perhaps it’s accurate–hoods and waterboarding aren’t new–but there’s a pointedness about the scene that feels a little bit smug. Damon and Angelina Jolie are obnoxiously ageless over the course of the movie, so that Wilson and his wife look essentially the same at twenty as they do at forty-five. Would a gray hair or two have killed the makeup department? They’re nice-looking people, we know, but they aren’t elves.

Thankfully, the cast is generally well chosen and give strong performances. Damon is good as Wilson, a man so defined by his job that his professional persona and his internal workings become indistinguishable. He is literally flawless–so hardened that he seems never to crack. Admittedly, he could probably play this role in his sleep, but his performance is still good. Jolie is a little bit too flamboyant to disappear into her role, but she doesn’t ruin anything, all things considered. The rest of the movie is packed with classy male stars: DeNiro, Joe Pesci, John Turturro, Michael Gambon, William Hurt, Billy Crudup, Alec Baldwin. They’re all good, if a little anonymous; they’re spies, after all.

In all, The Good Shepherd isn’t exactly empty matinee fodder, but it’s good. It might be more confusing than is really necessary, but at least it feels significant.

The Good Shepherd, Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Robert DeNiro, movie reviews