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RECRUIT, THE

Script Review: The Recruit
Written by Kurt Wimmer, Mitch Glazer

Reviewed by Christopher Wehner

(1/8/03)

MINOR SPOILERS!

NOTE: The screenplays we review are often in development and may experience many rewrites, some could end up being completely different than what is reviewed here. It is our hope that our reviews generate more interest in the film. Thank you. The Recruit

Director: Roger Donaldson Stars: Al Pacino; Colin Farrell; Bridget Moynahan; Eugene Lipinski; Gabriel Macht; Kenneth Mitchell. Producers: Jeff Apple, Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum


"James, the most important thing you need to know is -- that you don't know shit. What you hear, what you see"

The Recruit hits theaters at the end of the month, so this is a tad late script review. But well worth it friends. Originally titled The Farm, and the draft I am reviewing still has that title (dated 4/12/01).

The story centers on James Clayton (Farrell), an M.I.T. student who is approached by Walter Burke (Pacino), a senior C.I.A. agent and instructor. His purpose is to get James to join the Bureau. But why? At first the proposal seems absurd, as it should, and James is suspicious until Burke brings up James' mother and father, both of whom died together in a plane crash in Peru when he was younger. Burke insinuates James' father was a C.I.A. operative. James is floored by the realization and at first rejects Burke's offer to join. But by the next day he changes his mind and joins up, as a recruit. After passing an entrance and psychological examination, he is accepted as a "Career Trainee."

James and some other trainees are sent to "The Farm," Camp Peary, for training, and after which the ones that don't washout or are dismissed, become agents. During this time they are being evaluated every bit as much as they are trained. James becomes involved with co-trainee Layla Moore (Moynahan). Burke and another instructor (Slayne) hammer on the young recruits that they should always been on their guard. An entire town is the simulation where they must maneuver and collect "assets". The trainees are told "don't trust anything," "don't get caught," and "nothing is as it seems."

Eventually one of the first of several interesting plot twists occurs. James and Layla retire away from the compound and to a wooded area where they make love. Only after they are finished, men in ski masks armed with rifles and flashlights jump them and take James away. He's blindfolded, half-naked and freezing, and thrown into the trunk of a car and driven somewhere. Then he's taken to an airport where he is placed in the cargo area of the plane, still blindfolded. Eventually he ends up in an old prison, where a large man with a "Slavic" accent interrogates him about "The Farm" and who the other trainees and instructors are.

James assumes this is a test, and part of his training, but still he's scared. He tells his captors nothing and this goes on for several days until they bring the sleeping bag that Layla and James were in and tell him something very disturbing, and at which point he cracks. He starts babbling, asks for Burke, and wants out of the cell.

Just like that he is removed and discovers he was still at Camp Peary, in an old part of the compound. He cracked, and has washed out of the C.I.A. Doesn't sound very fair, and certainly wasn't right.

At least that's what his co-trainees believe. Burke takes James aside and tells him he lasted longer than anyone ever had in that simulation. He also tells him that they need him to help deal with a spy. This spy is a female scientist on the M.I.T. campus someone James knows. James at first refuses, he knows the professor and can't believe she is a spy. It doesn't take long for Burke to convince James he has to do it, and that he's the only one who can get into her zone of trust. So now it all makes sense. James was recruited because of his involvement with this M.I.T. scientist.

I'm not always big on these C.I.A. and F.B.I operative, covert, Tom Clancy wanna-be scripts. But like last year's Spy Game, this is a well written script. Spy Game was heavier on character, which worked well for it, and it was not as reliant on situation and plot as The Recruit is, but they are both outstanding stories crafted by good screenwriters.

The Recruit has a couple of mind-bending twists, and one revealed towards the end that is flat out mind-boggling. It completely floored me. The beginning of the script is a little slow and I was not entirely convinced that the dramatic situation was plausible, but the story was working enough that I never lost interest or faith. And then of course when the spy turns out to be a M.I.T. scientist it all made perfect sense.

I understand the script has been rewritten some, and that the second and third act will be a little different. I hope that the plot twists, especially the ending revelation, are still there. If they are, this will be an outstanding movie. And, after Daredevil, The Recruit, and the upcoming Phone Booth, Colin Farrell is going to be a major star.

Until next time.

--Chris

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