Like the Cold War. Nothing happened

Rating: 5/10 (13 March 2007)

When the CIA discover that someone has been leaking information to the Cubans, it is up to Edward Bell Wilson (Matt Damon) to track the person down and administer some justice covert style. His journey is told as we are invited into Damon's life, how he came to join the CIA, how he met his wife, his first sacrifice etc. An intricate story, class acting and some great directing means that Robert De Niro's latest stint behind the camera has all the right ingredients to make a remarkable movie. Not in this case though. Not a case of too many cooks, more of a case of the wrong amount of ingredients. The story may be intricate but it is far from compelling. Damon may be wonderful but one feels that he may have benefited more from some regular support. Joe Pesci and Alec Baldwin are great in their cameos, however it wouldn't have killed anyone to give them some more screen time. Jolie doesn't do anything wrong, though it's hard to feel sorry for her when you don't really care for her one dimensional bored housewife. Damon's son provides some great support in the third act, as does Michael Gambon in the first, however it's not enough to save a film that is unfortunately very boring. The problem is that this film had so much potential. However it is a prime example that regardless of the star quality a film possesses it will always fail under a poor script.