In the spirit of using old quotes to describe new things, I'm offering one up to describe Robert De Niro's latest assured picture: the taciturn spy epic The Good Shepherd: "the kid's alright". Now you may be wondering why it is that I find the movie merely above average, instead of the sort of maniacle raving I usually reserve for Bill Condon musicals and Tim Burton films. The answer is a strange one because what I find to be the movie's biggest weakness is also, to me, it's most appealing feature. That being its secrets, its shadows, and it's wholly complete inability to reveal much of anything at all except in whispers.
Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) believed in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Maybe that's why he chose to become one of the few building blocks for the modern day CIA. Or maybe it's because he was dissapointed in his domestic life (his dissapontment being of course the by product of some other unknown event in his life). Or maybe it's simply a dramatic device. Whatever the cause it inspires alot of shadowy dealings with shadowy men while all the time events are spiraling about unseen and untold for most of the movie, or in some cases forever.
Now, what makes the above sound alot less like homework is the acting. Matt Damon turns in a killer performance as a man locked up (for what appears, no reason) inside his own head. In addition Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin, William Hurt, Billy Crudup, and Robert De Niro himself all show up to alleviate, englighten, or in some cases muddle the already broken plot. What ultimately emerges though is a picture of the USA at war with itself and at war with nothing. Playing with shadows if you would and watching it all happen has a perverse, entrancing (though not enthralling) charm. The problem is that it all ends up being tantamount to dancing in the shadows with nary a hope of seeing the light.
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