The Good Shepherd

Rating: 9/10 (24 February 2007)

Robert De Niro's "The Good Shepherd" is a long and detailed look at the men, who sacrifice their life for a life full of paranoia and without trust. The film doesn't give us an answer for their motives, it shows us Edward Wilson, a literature student, who somehow gets into espionage and becomes one of the CIA founders. You can see De Niro's fascination with this topic in every frame of the film, it is filled with so much love for the material, although, on the surface, people will see a very cold film about a cold man, unable to have a close relationship to his wife and son. For a long time I just couldn't get warm with Matt Damon, but in recent times I have become a fan. He really has been great in all of his recent films, but the one film, that would really be HIS film, had still to come. Until I saw "The Good Shepherd". There is rarely a scene without Matt Damon and he carries the film with his silent, nuanced performance.