An actor centered movie

Rating: 8/10 (30 January 2007)

A common mistake actors turned directors make is to do films that focus on the acting, on the performance of the individual actor, rather than the story. This is a long two hours and a half of exceptional acting, but when it ends you end up asking yourself what the hell was that all about. Even if the subject is based on a true character and the approach is realist enough, the film is very hard to watch without getting bored. But it is a very good film, nonetheless.
A great thumbs up to Matt Damon, I think he deserves an Oscar for this, even if other actors would have played this role a lot more easily than, I guess, he did. The film itself shows actors to be very old. It spans 22 years or more and the young become old and older actors like Robert de Niro and Joe Pesci look ancient. Can you remember the guy that plays a few scenes as an old Mafia boss playing in Home Alone? Geez, time passes quickly.
Anyway, a lot of good actors played in this movie, but that doesn't mean they had roles to match. Angelina Jolie plays the "got me a husband by getting pregnant" role, quite well I would say, but she isn't very center stage. Joe Pesci, Robert de Niro, William Hurt, Timothy Hutton, they all played a few scenes in the movie. This is not a one man film, but it is damn close to one.
Bottom line: it is worth a watch, but you must be in the mood. Not a popcorn and laughs film. It portrays the boring and dangerous life of a top CIA director. You must bear with it, there is no catch in the end, it's a descriptive movie.