A flawed but fascinating epic

Rating: 7/10 (17 April 2010)

Robert De Niro's direction of Eric Roth's layered evocation of the early years of the CIA stumbles here and there - not least over the casting of Edward Wilson, the brilliant "everyman" hardened into a not quite soulless operative by the times and the events he lives through (Matt Damon again pushing the boundaries of what a still young actor can credibly pull off and this time coming up just short, but close enough) - but over all the film soars on so many levels, the intelligent viewer has to be swept along in the sheer intellectual adventure.
As with many historical works - and more than most - the more you know of the history which inspired the film, the deeper the impact of work of all concerned. The CIA in recent years had gotten a very bad rap both at home and abroad as its periodic shortcomings have been exposed and through the misguided right wing efforts to justify them or blame them on "liberals," and the film does not attempt to change that, although it does show the fair minded the underlying necessity of SOME effective covert intelligence gathering agency.
Roth and Di Niro make some aspects of the 50's (in the last half of the film) unrealistically dark - quite clearly neither grew up in the suburbs of Washington where many knew their neighbors worked at Langley, but few (including the wives of these employees) knew exactly what they were doing - or often, where - but the largely top drawer cast elevates the occasional "spy/thriller" stereotype to literature.
Di Niro was able to literally pack the film with some of the best and brightest talents Hollywood and London had to offer and it shows in the hold his by turns mystifying, enthralling and heartbreaking (waiting at the church) story maintains on the audience.
Possibly the best example is the young character actor who ultimately brings the balance of the film into focus as the father sees the turning points in his own life in his son's. The son is played by Eddie Redmayne, a British stage actor who has already piled up half a dozen important film credits before opening this month (April 2010) on Broadway in RED - recreating his London role in a dazzling "two hander" opposite Alfred Molina as modern artist Mark Rothko - almost certain to bring him a Tony nomination at the least. In THE GOOD SHEPHERD, Redmayne's range and power as the son trying to live up to a father impossible to understand and carve out his own life with the values they share gives a texture to the story and a depth to the relationships that is quite dazzling - and the film has character after character doing the same thing (especially telling performances from Michael Gambon as a possible double agent and Oleg Shtefanko as a transparently single one are alone worth the film); creating a real world where we are all to used to seeing only the thinnest of story lines.
Some will be reminded of John Le Carre's THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, a Cold War film that anticipated the end of same, but while set at an earlier time, THE GOOD SHEPHERD is both less bleak and far more sophisticated in it's story telling. Not every twist works, but the whole more than justifies the few parts which fall short.
Go with an open mind on the subject and an appreciation for great acting - even in the case of Damon's over carefully restrained one - and you'll realize how much of this film is brilliant. The immediate impression of the film may only be seven of ten stars, but the afterglow is eight or nine.