Mildly disappointing, but somehow still intriguing

Rating: 7/10 (23 December 2006)

The Good Shepherd is like reading a long, drawn out book that you can't seem to put down because you want to see what the ending holds. Artistically through camera angles, lighting, and certain characters eerily resemble that of the infamous Citizen Cane. I loved the mystery and wonderful acting brought into the The Good Shepherd. I thought it was brilliantly directed by Robert De Niro and had a lot of positive aspects while also holding a lot of negatives as well. The entertainment value was slightly agitated and overshadowed by the creative directing. When I saw this film last night, one thing was in my mind... "where was the suspense?" The suspenseful segments in the film were far and few between (noting the movie is almost 3 hours long). It took a while for the story's main focus to be brought into limelight. Another thing I found confusing was the shift between time periods. The only reason I knew which was which was by the captions provided on the bottom of the screen. Also, it's pretty easy to figure out the time period by the characters' dress and dialect. "The deafening silence speaks a thousand words" was one of the most amazing quotes in the film along side with the poetry that was read by some of the characters throughout the movie. I loved how the poetry always correlated with the scenarios that had either already happened or were foreshadowing what was to come. The quote I specified in particular was a direct relation to the two women that had hearing problems. One lady was completely deaf, while the other lady was a mole for a foreign intelligence and pretended she was hard of hearing. Speaking of the two women, I thought Laura was a really good character that added a certain level of dimension with Matt Damon's character. It proved even the most stubborn of hearts can be touched by something so sensitive. Over all, if you are wanting to see a movie and are expecting a lot of action and thrill, this is definitely not the movie to see. But if you are wanting to see an intellectual film that makes you think and you can appreciate a truly multi-dimensional film, The Good Shepherd is just that.