 The New York Times' A.O. Scott observes that while The Recruit is billed as a spy thriller, it actually belongs to "a very special genre: the Al Pacino crazy mentor picture." He notes that this is the sort of film in which Pacino is paired with a younger actor "to enact a peculiar generational battle" in which Pacino's character is "gestural and confrontational" and his young co-stars' (in the current case, Colin Farrell) is "cooler, warier." Given this assessment, it is ironic to read Jack Mathews' comment in the New York Daily News that Farrell "has the same edgy, inner intensity that made the young Pacino so riveting 30 years ago." But, if the critics like anything about the movie at all, it's the performances of the two actors. Otherwise, they generally agree, the film is strikingly so-so. Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post comments: "When I see a movie like "The Recruit," I wonder: Who wanted to make this thing? It's not bad, but it's not good, either. It's nothing but style and noise, threadbare of content, empty of ideas. Is it anything? Not really." Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times gives the film one of its best grades 2 1/2 stars: "It's the kind of movie you can sit back and enjoy," he writes, "as long as you don't make the mistake of thinking too much." But Ricardo Baca in the Denver Post appears to have seen a different movie, calling it "smart, well-written ... a rare gem." |
