In a word, slow. This movie tells the story of the birth of the CIA, from the Americans providing assistance to British Intelligence during WWII to the actual formation of the Central Intelligence Agency through the experiences of Edward Wilson (Matt Damon). The key problem for me with this movie is the Wilson character is completely unlikeable. That is not to say that Matt Damon does a poor job portraying him, it is that he is singly focused on his role as an intelligence officer to the detriment of those around him. This may be the type of person that is ideal to help start up an intelligence agency it is just that it doesn't mean an interesting movie can be made around them.
The movie purports to be a spy movie but I like such movies to have more espionage and less focus on the family life of the spies including the trampy wife played by Angelina Jolie (no typecasting there) and the doe-eyed son (Eddie Redmayne). I wasn't expecting James Bond but I was expecting better pacing.
Bottom-line: You can skip this one.
Comments (2)
Most serious observers of the CIA and even the FBI believe their true roots lie in the ex-pat SS and Aberweher personnel transplanted after WWII.
Posted by Real Conservative | April 3, 2007 3:43 PM
Posted on April 3, 2007 15:43
The FBI — whose roots stretch back to the 1908 Bureau of Investigation — was actually created by expat Nazis a few decades later? Tell me another one.
The CIA’s roots are very, very easily identified as the wartime OSS. Nazi spies and spymasters were used as a part of Operation Paperclip but they were assets, or a part of German intel. Not exactly sitting in the CIA’s own DCI, DDI or DDO chairs and crafting policy.
Posted by Chris Taylor | April 3, 2007 4:21 PM
Posted on April 3, 2007 16:21