Solid narrative but mistakes intelligence and maturity for just having an overly slow pace

Rating: Null/10 (26 July 2007)

Time will see Edward Wilson become involved in the disastrous Bay of Pigs with the CIA and trying to locate the leak that caused the operation to fail. Looking back we see Edward Wilson as a young man in his days at Yale, where approaches to work for the OSS sees him travelling abroad as Britain goes to war. Back at home his already weak family life is hurt by the distance as his wife gives birth to a son. At work his simple ideals are influenced by the sense of mistrust and paranoia that exist as part of his job and from those all around him.
There is no denying that at times this film does move painfully slowly. Some people have claimed that this slow pace is all part of the film having a "grownup" narrative but this a bit like assuming that a car must have a stereo  they are common together but they are not mutually exclusive. So it is here as a mostly engaging narrative is badly misjudged in regards pacing, stretching the material so thinly at times that it does suffer; I can understand why this is accepted as being part and parcel of the story but I personally think that it is a flaw in the delivery.
It is a shame as well because the story does have the potential to produce a grown-up espionage story where the sense of mistrust is as important as the actual actions within the story and indeed it does deliver this well, if you manage to overlook the sluggish pace. Some have claimed the story to be wonderfully complex and to an extent they are correct but this is as much to do with the structuring of the story as it jumps around in time. That said I still found the narrative interesting, but not to the point that I found it as strong as others have claimed.
The driving heart of the film is left to Damon, who gives a strong performance that is the opposite of the equally good turns he has been giving as Jason Bourne. He ages his character really well without any significant use of make-up; the make-up of his character being enough for him to mark out that transition. The rest of the cast is ramming with star names but few are given the time to be more than "OK" and none match the consistent presence of Damon. Baldwin, De Niro, Gambon, Hutton, Sessions, Pesci, Blanchard, Hurt and others all provide solid support but I felt that, of all of them, Jolie stood out like one massive sore thumb. She is badly miscast and she pushes her character beyond what the material suggests she should be. She is a disappointment and distraction. As director, I did think that De Niro was lacking in some areas and that the ability to bring her in was one of them. Perhaps the pacing was another but blame for that also lies in the editing suite. Visually he has a good eye for the shot and makes some wide shots work just as well as close ones, both contextually working as well as visually.
Overall then, an OK film that is some in the middle of the praise and criticism directed at it. It is a smart script but the pacing is not part of it  in fact it is an error in the delivery that damages the flow of the story and makes it harder work than it needed to be. The collection of stars (what is the collection noun for that anyway) are solid but slightly distracting  although none moreso than a badly miscast and misfiring Jolie. Thank goodness then that Damon provides a rock of a lead and makes the film better than it could have been albeit still less than the sum of its parts.