A very good spy movie...

Rating: 8/10 (27 December 2006)

To give a head's up, this is not the James Bond film of where there's shootings, car chases, vodka martinis and gadgets. This film delivers a different and more old-fashioned version of spy films, which is: mystery, deception, manipulation, and murder.
After saying that, the film follows the birth of the CIA (Hollywood's version of course). It ranges from the late 1930's to the early 1960s, following one man's life, Edward Wilson (Matt Damon), whom starts off as a graduate from Yale, and ends up being recruited in a new, secret organization, developed by an aging General (Robert De Niro). With the help of his friends, (John Tutorro, Billy Cudrup, and Will Hurt-to name a few) and professor (Michale Gambo) they become the first members of the CIA.
It follows them, particularly close with Edward, their journeys from the London air raids in WWII, to the tensions of the Cold War within the U.S., and the Bay of Pigs. With all these events in history, it also holds a romantic story, with Edward's two flames, Laura a simple, friendly deaf woman (Tammy Blanchard), and his later pampered and sensual wife Margaret (Angelina Jolie). The film explores Ed's personal fears and inner turmoils as being an agent who is taken with his job and successful at it, but at the same time has a downslope of a family life, in which he pushes away and lives in fear.
To wrap things up, the film was simply a good spy film that covered a lot of detail and background, giving a very authentic feeling and look of the early CIA. De Niro captures the film very well with camera angles that make you feel inside the film, with characters, as well as giving suspenseful and intense moments. Matt Damon delivered a riveting performance as Edward, who is an ordinary man that is concealed with secrets that leads him to paranoia and no trust in anyone, save himself, and is also in tight struggle between family and country, demonstrated very well at the climatic ending. Even more interesting in the film is parallels between religion and government, the "skulls and bones".
The rest of the cast was great from the large roles like Angelina Jolie and to even the smallest roles in the film, which names I can barely remember. The costumes and set-decoration were great, the score was gripping, and above all, the direction by De Niro reveals that he has a future of being an excellent director. Desptie all of this, there was some damaging flaws.
it sounds like the perfect film, but there were two errors that harmed the film. One, it was choppy and very difficult to follow and understand properly. Second, the pace was painstakingly slow, nearly putting me into an unconscious state. Yes, there's not much action, but it doesn't take a lot of action to make a film go by quickly. Save for these flaws, it was a decent film, and among the better films of this year.
*** out of **** It's an adult film; message for parents, leave the kids home and see this movie.