Had High Expectations but was Extremely Disappointed

Rating: 5/10 (22 January 2007)

I'm the type of moviegoer who loves a full story, full of complexity and intertwining characters and events, with plenty of twists. I love De Niro and Coppola, films like "The Godfather, Parts I and II" or "Apocalypse Now" and "Casino", "Goodfellas" and the recent "The Departed" are my type of film. So imagine the anticipation I felt going into "The Good Shepherd." Two hours and forty minutes later, I left the theatre wondering, "Why?".
This film should be great, considering the players involved and the underlying material, the very formation and evolution of the CIA. Instead, this movie is a mishmash of conversations that go nowhere and plot-points that get developed only to fade away and never come to fruition. The climactic question, who within The Company gave intel to the Soviets re: Bay of Pigs, reaches a conclusion that should be earth shattering, but, like the rest of the film, falls flat. Several scenes, in fact, are wholly undeveloped and therefore unnecessary - one leaves asking, "And why was that part in the movie?" The cast is one of Oscar dreams - Damon, Jolie, De Niro himself, Alec Baldwin, Joe Pesci. But many of these names are only on the screen for a few minutes at best (e.g. Joe Pesci has one, brief scene). Damon's character, the focus of the film, is infamous for his stony silence and impenetrability - and on this he unfortunately delivers. He is emotionless and personality free - a protagonist such as this must be carefully done, and Damon doesn't do it in a way to be interesting.
As I said, I enjoy complexity - I don't need explosions and CGI to enjoy a film (in fact, those tend to come at the expense of true story and character development and therefore detract from a film). However, this movie had faux complexity at best - and in the end was merely an overly-long, boring exploration of a fascinating subject. The Emperor has no clothes.