Well-acted, well-written, terribly paced

Rating: 6/10 (7 April 2007)

It is very long, and it definitely feels it, but I didn't feel like this was a terrible movie. It's just too ambitious. The cast is great and there are really no weak links performance-wise - Damon is the weakest, as he really doesn't do anything but stay quiet and stone-faced - and there are some interesting scenes, but everything is so stretched out that the film is as long as possible. The layered and intriguing screenplay would be a lot better if it didn't take half an hour to tell a single important plot point. It's very similar to Syriana, in that it takes the longest possible route to tell a story, perhaps intending to appeal to adults but really just turning off everyone. Also, because it tries to tell the entire story of the CIA, there's no sense of a singular story or a climax. The direction is mostly solid, but the film is entirely too dull and dreary to really be that appealing. It's well-acted and well-written, but terribly paced.