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MIT graduate and computer whiz James Clayton [Colin Farrell] is persuasively recruited by CIA
Walter Burke [Al Pacino] to join the Agency. Though reluctant, but attracted by the offer, he finally accepts because he might come to know about his dead father, who
worked for the CIA. Although in training he is rated for his skills for undercover work, he doesn't make it and leaves the training Farm. However, Burke suddenly
visits him and asks him to go undercover at the agency— working at the computer—to spy on a suspected mole, Layla [Bridget Moynahan], his co-recruit. James and she have
developed an attraction for each other. Now he is assigned to find out what CIA data she is downloading, how she gets the information out of the building and to whom she
is passing it. Will he take the assignment? Where will the trail lead? Will he uncover anything important?
With the premise that "in the CIA nothing is what it seems," The Recruit takes the
viewers along on an interesting series of events following a recruit through the preliminary routine of qualifying for the job, then the arduous training of skills-physical,
mental, psychological – sometimes through methods that endanger life. However situations and events twist and turn into unexpected developments. Even the
characters are not sure when someone is role–playing or is for real.
What carries audience attention along is not only the story but also the adept work of the director and the outstanding performance of Colin Farrel, Bridget Moynahan and especially acclaimed Al Pacino, a master of his craft.
CIA recruiter Walter Burke explains to the recruits on training that in their work, they must
be ready to lie, to cheat, to deceive, and to kill, but never to get caught. They must hone to a fine craft their ability to perceive, role-play and be a psychologist.
They are in the CIA not for the money, sex or fame, but allegedly because they believe in choosing the good as against evil, and the right as against the wrong. To do its job, the CIA accepts/condones the use of subterfuge, deception and other actions normally considered criminal under different circumstances. Many issues in the movie can be discussed in a Catholic household regarding espionage. It would seem, from the words of CIA recruiter Burke, that being a CIA agent is morally sound: "…they believe in choosing the good… the right…" but in a world where "nothing is what it seems" and where agents are taught "never to trust anybody" espionage then becomes a case of the end justifying the means, of using evil to fight evil. A very dangerous premise to base one's lifework on. This must be made clear to those wishing to see
The Recruit.
[Date reviewed: April 4, 2003]
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