A moody slow- burn spy thriller

Rating: 6/10 (21 March 2015)

This was still a tedious, slow-burn of a movie and I will admit to not always having a clear idea as to what was going on and having to pay close attention to the dialogue, as a lot of it is spoken in riddles. A cast of heavy weights is what really makes this watchable.
The story starts in 1961 at the CIA covert operations during the Bay of Pigs and then follows Edward Wilson's career in flashbacks. Matt Damon takes the lead here, his character is serious, self contained and hard to get a read on. Damon seems to play a lot of these 'silent' characters.
It continues to flip back and forth between the 40's and 60's; Damon is a student at Yale, his recruitment through the Skull & Bones fraternity, a shotgun marriage to Angelina Jolie (in a small role), his early spy years in London during WW2 and the blitz (which was re-created well) a couple of affairs, the cold war and disillusionment and distrust with the agency.
Along the way he rubs shoulders with Alec Baldwin, Billy Crudup, Joe Pesci, John Turturro, Timothy Hutton, Patrick Wilson, Robert DeNiro, William Hurt and Eddie Redmayne plays his son.
I wouldn't say this was a great movie, it tries hard, has a stellar cast, nice cinematography but takes itself too seriously and ultimately is slow, dry and confusing in sections. There is also zero action (if that's important to you). As for Matt Damon's character, as the Russian says "the silence is deafening". 1/25/15