The Recruit (2003/Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B     Sound: A-     Extras: C     Film: C

 

 

Roger Donaldson makes two kinds of films, great ones or ones drenched in a sometimes odd sense of a closed, official world that never totally rings true.  For every White Sands, World’s Fastest Indian and Bank Job, we get a No Way Out, Thirteen Days and this film, The Recruit.  The film stars Colin Farrell as the title character/James Clayton pulled into the CIA as quickly as possible as a trainee and finds himself in the thick of a case thanks to a knowledgeable CIA head (Al Pacino) who claims he knows talent when he sees it and knew the man’s father.

 

In the meantime, James becomes interested beyond professional status with a fellow trainee (Bridget Moynahan) and even wonders if he wants to be part of the whole CIA organization to begin with for all kinds of reasons.  In what could have been a formula screenplay by Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer & Mitch Glazer, we also get what some thought was pro-CIA (and even pro-Right Wing) propaganda moments (like how hot sexually oppressed conservative women are and make for great sex!) and that the real CIA helped made some of the media react by ignoring the film.  It never becomes too problematic, if that was actually the case.

 

However, the film takes plot twists that are not that memorable and though the acting (mostly by still-unknown actors) and pace overcome some of the troubles.  Farrell is even able to hold his own against Pacino, which is not easy, but he is an underrated star and actor, despite some bad publicity.  It is a film worth a look, even for its failures, but it is also a good performer on Blu-ray.

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot by Director of Photography Stuart Dryburgh (Analyze This, Aeon Flux) and delivered one of his best-looking works still to date, but this transfer is too soft and troubled throughout despite looking a bit better than the DVD.  That’s a shame, because the look helps the film work when it does.  Fortunately, the PCM 48/24 5.1 mix is a sonic stunner, for its age or not, with a great soundfield that is demonstration quality down to its decent score by Klaus Badelt (The Pledge, K-19: The Widowmaker, Equilibrium) who at his best is underrated.  Too bad the picture is not as goods, but audiophiles alone will want his one.

 

Extras include four deleted scenes with optional Donaldson/Farrell commentary, a feature length audio commentary by both (all of which is worth your time) and featurette Spy School: Inside The CIA Training Program.  They too make this all the more interesting.

 

By the way, the rule I noted above about Donaldson’s films are always defied by his remakes, including The Bounty, The Getaway and even Species, which is an Alien knockoff more or less.  He is an underrated filmmaker, but note how quickly his films are hitting Hi Def.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo