Good but Not Great, A Movie Review of 'The Good Shepherd'

My expectations for this movie were high, thus I was both satisfied and disappointed.  The movie is over two hours but feels longer.  If one factors in the commercials and previews then the movie last about six hours.   While it is intellectually stimulating, if you are expecting a lot of action from a storyline devoted to the genesis of the CIA, you will be disappointed.  If I haven’t made it perfectly clear yet, ‘Shepherd’ has the pace of Vermont molasses in January flowing up hill.

One of the problems with the film is that it switches from 1961, Bay of Pigs era, back to how Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) started his career with the agency.  The time periods are labeled, but due to a real lack of identifiable changes in clothing and hairstyles of men of a certain SES (social economic status) often it is still difficult to tell.  Damon has such a baby face that although he does a credible job playing Wilson as an older man burdened with his choice of career, I still wanted to laugh when thinking of him as a man with a grown son.

The best part of the movie is when it introduces Wilson as just another Harvard student performing in drag (Hasty Pudding Award anyone?) who is tapped for the legendary Skull and Bones organization (both George Bush Jr. and Sr. plus John Kerry were members during their Harvard tenures).  The movie points out that most of the men are protestant (with a few Catholics thrown in for variety).  May I also add the obvious. all the members were male, white, of upper-middle class to upper-upper class.  Skull and Bones is not the campus organization that sought to change the status quo but maintained it – often at a very high price. From an initiation that includes nude male mud wrestling while older members spray the participants with urine to a ritual where each novice snuggles nude (again) in a coffin and confesses his most intimate secret, the audience clues in that there is just something off with this exclusive group.  The story progresses from there examining the reasons Wilson joined the CIA to the personal sacrifices he makes in order perform his job. 

The movie is brilliantly acted.  Angelina Jolie transformed herself into a sorority girl who is forward (back in the day some would call her fast) who then mirrors the life of her husband except she at no time feels she is working for a higher cause.  Damon, despite before mentioned baby face, emotes the dull bureaucratic ennui that men like Wilson grew into with slightly stooped shoulders and haircuts that were always just so.  The supporting cast was fantastic too.  Particularly Michael Gambon (the most recent Professor Dumbledorf from the Harry Potter franchise) who plays a British agent who’s sexuality becomes an issue.  Robert De Niro casts himself (he is the director) as a general who is slowly being amputated away due to a blood condition.  William Hurt plays Wilson’s boss who may or may not be selling government secrets.

The role of Wilson’s son, both older and younger versions, seem miscast.  Austin Williams plays Edward Wilson Jr. and gives the audience a real Damien vibe.  In fact I even looked up his profile on www.imdb.com to make sure he didn’t play the son of the devil in the last Damien outing.  I misconstrued his anxious peeing on Santa to possession  – me bad.   Eddie Redmayne plays the older Wilson Jr. who is entangled with some spy business and a woman.  The spy stuff I bought, the woman thing…I don’t think so.  I have no problems with gay actors playing straight or visa versa, but my suspension of disbelief will only go so far.  BTW, I really have no evidence about Redmayne’s sexuality one way or another, except to note I think I have more testosterone cursing through my veins and I am fairly girly girlish. 

As noted earlier, the film works on an intellectual level.  We see how one university with one clique is able to infiltrate the highest levels of government on the premise that it is their birth right.  There is also an underpinning that during WWII the US was finally able to take the big dog world mantel from the British who were tired from fighting two major wars in as many generations.  There is also the rise of the cold war and the division of the world as communist or capitalist.  Although, as one character notes before throwing himself out of a window, the Soviet threat to the capitalist west is overblown – all smoke and mirrors.

With all of that said; I must admit that I did not fully understand if Wilson was supposed to be a good spy or brilliant bureaucrat.  I wager De Niro would answer both.  I found myself underwhelmed with Wilson’s office (aren’t spies supposed to have a little better digs?) and did not quite understand why a particular Soviet agent found Wilson intriguing, especially considering that Wilson is always reporting to someone higher then himself thus giving the audience the feeling that he has never experienced life as his own man. 

Because of the movie’s flaws and length, I would recommend seeing this film on DVD.  If you have little interest in the development of what we know as the CIA, I don’t this movie will entertain you at all.  If you do have even a slight interest, this movie may inspire you to do some research.