Whispering the CIA roots

THE GOOD SHEPHERD (2006)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

For the first two-thirds of Robert De Niro's sprawling, though often deeply unsettling, deadly serious-minded CIA picture, "The Good Shepherd" holds one interest in its solemnity and its peaks of unfolding secrets lurking in every corner of its narrative. The film wallows in secrets and codes and it is intrinsically fascinating for a while yet, for a nearly three hour film, it can get overbearing and somewhat lost in its ambitions.

Matt Damon, who is only allowed a flicker of humanity, is a robotic man devoid of anything other than the stringent, straight, by-the-book characteristics of a CIA agent. Damon is Edward Wilson, a poetry student at Yale who is inducted into the Skull and Bones society (according to this movie, falsely deemed by some historians, it is also an induction into the spy business). Wilson is approached by a shadowy agent (Alec Baldwin) to spy on Wilson's poetry professor (Michael Gambon - the most amazing performance in the movie) who may be holding secret Nazi meetings within the school. Once Wilson aptly sniffs out info on his professor, he is introduced to a world of spying, first and foremost on the Soviets. De Niro has a small and tightly controlled role as a general who reminds Wilson that in a time of war, it is Wilson's duty to be patriotic and fight the good fight. My issue is that, aside from fighting Communism in the postwar years, the movie never establishes what Wilson's fight entails. There may be a Yuri who has defected who cannot be trusted, or is there? Most of the film features flashbacks to a cryptic photograph showing a couple in bed together uttering in whispered tones about something, but what? Sound recordings are heard, time and again, and by the end of the film, we figure out the big secret (fans of Robert Ludlum and other spy novels might spot this coming a mile away).

As I said, most of "The Good Shepherd" conveys the reality of a world shrouded in mystery, silences, hush-hush tones but without a whole lot of spine-tingling suspense. There is not much narrative thrust here - this is a world inhabited by a man whom we cannot quite fathom. It is shown that Wilson's father committed suicide and left a note, but Wilson hides it from his family. Other than that, he dates a pretty woman who happens to be deaf (which foreshadows a spy suspect) and then abandons her for a sexually carnivorous woman (Angelina Jolie). The relationship with Jolie lacks much depth - Wilson is so committed to his job that he works overseas for six years and Jolie has affairs to keep her need for human contact open. Most striking image is seeing Wilson going to work everyday, briefcase in hand, as he boards a bus to Washington, D.C. But we never quite get a handle on Wilson or any glimpse into his inner life - despite scenes where he is clearly working intelligence, he may as well be running a bank. And what in God's good Earth did Jolie see in Wilson?

"The Good Shepherd" is involving enough as a document of the history of the CIA, without actually dramatizing it. That can be a plus but we feel lost when Wilson is the anchor of the movie. There are nifty, memorable turns by Joe Pesci as a gangster with Cuban ties; the aforementioned Michael Gambon as the homosexual spy who may be aware of secrets within other agents; Robert De Niro as General Sullivan whose own cool, detached mannerisms speak volumes more than Damon's Wilson; Lee Pace as another agent (and Skull and Bones member) whose gaze holds you in place (he should have played Wilson), and Tammy Blachard as the spurned woman of Wilson's life. As watchable as the film is, it lacks thrust and moral weight. The film aches to be nothing more than a shared whisper about the CIA's roots. I wanted more than a whisper.