Ample rewards here for the committed-- of mind and body

Rating: 8/10 (5 January 2007)

The good news on Mr De Niro's version of "CIA: The Early Years" is plentiful enough:
(1) the script has more than sufficient history and skulduggery, both real and made-to-fit-the-movie, to keep the cleverer sections of one's brain engaged throughout the film's long running time; (2) there are considerable and sustained chunks of good acting on display, including fine contributions from sources you'd expect (John Turturro, John Hurt, Sir Michael Gambon, De Niro himself) and some you might not (Alec Baldwin and Angelina Jolie); (3) the production values,attention to period detail and the like are impressive throughout, cumulatively producing just the kind of atmospherics a good spy movie needs; and (4) the conclusions to be drawn are, if you will, clear without being obvious: some but not all of the dots are connected for you, while the direction and tenor of the film leave progressively less doubt about what the whole enterprise is saying *tout court*.
Bravo to all that. At the same time, however, one would be remiss in not mentioning several irritants, e.g. Why couldn't the make-up people age protagonist Damon (and Jolie to an extent) more convincingly? For that matter, why use Damon in the first place? While he has shown himself a fine actor in certain roles, this one fairly cries out for Russell Crowe, one would think (or was he simply otherwise engaged at the time?). And what are British viewers to make of Billy Crudup, playing an Oxbridgeian, potentially Philby-like characterbut with an accent which seemed to be hovering around between the Midlands and the mid-Atlantic looking for a place to land?
Finally, a philosophical question: Given that the film is based in large part on the life and experiences of James Angleton (the externals thereof, in any case), was it wise to offer up this version of Angletonwho was nothing if not a colourful characteras a virtual cipher?
All told, this is a film which amply rewards the committed viewerbut do bear in mind that the commitment is one of both mind (no simple Bonding here) and body (at nearly 3 hours, preponderantly the posterior and kidneys).
My advice: furrow the brow, train a bit and go for it!