Spy Game*** out of ****November 29, 2001 BY ADAM KEMPENAARRobert Redford acts in so few movies these days that it's easy to forget just how good he is. In Spy Game, the new espionage thriller co-starring Brad Pitt, the Sundance kid shows us that he's still got what it takes to carry a movie. Redford plays Nathan Muir, a veteran secret agent who wakes up on his last day at the CIA to learn that his former protégé Tom Bishop (Pitt) is being held in a Chinese prison. Bishop was captured during a failed rescue mission and is now facing execution. Muir and his shifty CIA bosses have 24 hours to get him out. The only problem, Muir quickly realizes, is that the powers-that-be seem more concerned with finding a reason to leave Bishop there to die - something to do with an upcoming presidential trip to China; in other words, politics as usual. The story effectively alternates between the primary storyline - Muir being questioned by his bosses while secretly devising his own rescue plan - and various flashbacks that reveal how Muir met Bishop and trained him to be a special agent. We also see how their friendship was tested during a mission that went awry in Beirut, thanks in some part to Bishop's relationship with a beautiful but untrustworthy female aid worker named Elizabeth Hadley (Catherine McCormack). Director Tony Scott has made his fair share of mindless action entertainment in the past - Top Gun, Days of Thunder, The Last Boy Scout - but with recent flicks such as Crimson Tide, Enemy Of The State, and now Spy Game, Scott has proven his ability to make compelling action movies that require a little bit of thinking as well. While a good deal of the scheming and counter-scheming will likely confuse many viewers, myself included, Scott keeps the pace brisk enough that you won't care until the movie is over and you start trying to sort out all the details. The only time the movie loses momentum is during the extended flashback in Beirut, which keeps us in the past and away from the suspense of the main storyline for too long. In addition, the relationship between Bishop and Elizabeth isn't sufficiently developed, which makes some of Bishop's later actions in the name of love somewhat hard to swallow. Also, Scott relies too heavily on aerial shots that rotate dramatically around his characters. In Enemy Of The State the trick worked because it heightened the sense that Big Brother is always watching. In Spy Game, Muir and Bishop are the ones doing the watching, which makes the flashy camera work pointless and distracting. But none of these flaws are enough to distract us from relishing Redford's sly performance. I've tried to think of another actor of his generation that could pull off Muir's 'always-a-step-ahead-of-you' coolness with the same aplomb that Redford does, but I couldn't come up with one. Gene Hackman, Harrison Ford, Robert De Niro are all great, but they're also too gruff - too much machismo and not enough charm. It's the kind of role Redford was born to play, combining the cunning intelligence he displayed in Three Days of the Condor with the attention to detail he showed in All The President's Men. (When it comes right down to it, a special agent and a journalist work in the same trade - information.) Spy Game reminded me of some of the fun, old-school espionage/political movies from the 80s and early 90s such as The Hunt For Red October and Patriot Games - good acting (including Pitt's performance), strong pacing, and a tight, suspenseful storyline that deals with heavy subjects such as friendship, loyalty, and love without crushing us under their weight. Agree? Disagree? E-mail CinemaScoped at: cinemascoped@sbcglobal.net |
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