Falls far short of a masterpiece

Rating: 6/10 (14 April 2007)

Even though I'm pretty sure Robert De Niro thought he was making one. I have tremendous trouble with inconsistent characterizations and this movie is riddled with them.
For one, the lead, Edward Wilson, played by one note Matt Damon (has anyone every given any thought to putting him in a movie with another one-noter like Helen Hunt - that would be a blast!)is a sensitive child who witnesses a horrific scene but goes on to star - as a woman, and well -in an operetta. That takes guts and a need for the limelight and a certain acting ability. However, this man is inveigled into becoming one of the first secret agents and a founder of the CIA. In total antithesis to the original set up.
He is actively pursued by a fiery and beautiful Angelina Jolie, playing Clover - who gets that one shot and you're pregnant thang - whom he gun-shot marries, and then her character goes from fire to a compliant wet squid.
Their son, who has that high-pitched voice and sensitivity to style ("you look so lovely, Mummy") that cues from miles away how he's going to turn out but hold hard here, you're wrong again, this chappie joins the Secret Service himself and goes to Africa to fall in love with a woman.
Matt Damon, Dorian Grayishly, doesn't age at all through the course of about forty years so one has enormous difficulty placing him in responsible middle or elder age - even though the flashes of timeline on the screen sometimes help, though they go back and forth quite irritatingly, to present to past to past-past and back again. Befuddling.
There are many bit parts and Russian and American double agents, Michael Gambon raises the level of the movie quite a few notches all by himself. Even Robert himself appears and well too. But many minor characters, due to underdevelopment, are confusing in the thin threads of plot.
There is the mandatory love-that-got-away but what anyone sees in the monochromatic Edward Wilson beats me.
The murky underworld of the CIA is fascinating, I believe there are strong homosexual components to it (in real life) but these are never addressed here even though the plot came quite close with the son and then backpedalled like mad.
Totally unengaging and overly analytical. It is impossible to care about any of these characters in anything more than a superficial level. A documentary would have been far more entertaining. 6 out of 10.