Intelligent and well made but the overly heavy feel will leave many alienated

Rating: 7/10 (1 February 2010)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Robert De Niro's lengthy second directorial outing was the subject of mixed reviews when it first came out that made it a hit or miss affair in cinemas. While it was hailed as a decent and admirable piece of film-making, it's length and heavy subject matter marked it as one that might not go down well with certain other members of the film-going population. And on this rare occasion, the critics mostly seem to have got it right.
It's one I left, or wanted to leave, until it came on TV on New Year's Day, but even then the length put me off (what with all the other Christmas TV I'd been taking in!) But I decided to rent it instead, and finally put some time aside to take it all in. This is De Niro's take on how the CIA was formed, by a group of young men belonging to a secret order/society just before the second world war broke out, who came to be headed by Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) an idealistic, patriotic American who's been striving for truth and justice since his father committed suicide as a young man. We follow his journey as his loyalty is tested as the war starts, being asked to gather evidence against his mentor Dr. Fredericks (Michael Gambon) who's suspected of being a Nazi sympathiser, onto years later when the Bay of Pigs Invasion breaks out in Cuba and a mysterious sex tape appears to be the exposure of a traitor selling American intelligence to the Cubans, through to Wilson's personal life living a double life with a sweet deaf girl he met in a library, and the fiery Margeret (Angelina Jolie) with whom he's forced into marriage after getting her pregnant. But will his son come to be the straw that broke the camel's back?
That's the plot description and as you can see, it's a lot to take in and I'm not sure I pieced it all together right. I'd like to think I'm an intelligent person who can handle strong, challenging stuff like this, but I'm also a young person with, suitably, the attention span of a knat and yes, I must admit at times I did find TGS a trifle over-whelming and hard to follow. We need as much intelligent cinema as we can get at the moment, what with our culture being dumbed down to the point of collapse, so the film is actually quite refreshing, if nothing else. Sadly, it also smacks of being somewhat over-ambitious, with a distinct lack of humour and light through-out (bar seeing Damon in drag singing 'Poor Little Butter Cup', funniest drag queen since Gary Busey in Under Siege!) that only serves to make it an even more alienating experience. It's a mature film, and will probably be appreciated more by a seasoned crowd. The new generation of cinema goers are getting stupider, but this may not have done as well as it should more because of how inaccessible it might have felt to a lot of people more than the other reason.
The performances are pretty faultless, Damon a revelation as the self contained, humourless Wilson and Jolie showing some of that Changeling greatness as his strong willed wife. Being that it's his film, De Niro gives himself a small role with very limited screen time, ditto the likes of Alec Baldwin, William Hurt and Gambon, whilst fine, accomplished actors like Timothy Hutton and Joe Pesci get virtual cameos in even more secondary roles.
Overall, this is compelling, challenging, inspired, intelligent, original cinema, a perfect retrospective piece from De Niro in the autumn of his life and career, that sadly has a lack of appeal to the target demographic of cinema goers, for whom it would probably come off as too heavy, humourless and ambitious. One that might be better on a second viewing, me thinks. ***