The Good Shepherd 2006
I thought a movie involving the history of the CIA would be pretty interesting. The cast is also very strong, but I was kind of disappointed. The movie is slow and Matt Damon’s character is intensely boring: He shows no emotion and talks as little as possible. There is a very jumbled timeline that is used to keep the movie confusing. To add to that, they are using fictional names and events to represent some real and some imaginary events. Lastly, tons of stuff is just left out. It may be obvious to some who ordered a person killed, but I guess I’m too obtuse. The acting is fairly good and it was kind of interesting to see Angelina Jolie become The Graduate’s Mrs. Robinson. But it all comes down to the main character and I just don’t feel like I got to know him that well. His marriage is unhappy from even before it starts, and yet he sticks with it for over 20 years. I have no idea why. We are just walloped over the head with one unhappy scene after another.
After the movie was over I went to Wikipedia to try and make sense of what I had just watched. This led me to an article about James Angleton, the actual founder of CIA’s counter-espionage unit and the basis for Matt Damon’s character. That article is more interesting than the movie, so I think an opportunity was missed. After reading the article I think Damon probably portrayed the guy correctly, but that doesn’t make the character any less boring. Or the movie any better. The Good Shepherd isn’t bad, but it isn’t nearly as good as it could have been. C+.
Written: 08 Aug 2007