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Nothing is what it seems, 2 février 2006
An oft-repeated phrase throughout this film is that with the CIA, nothing is what it seems. Unfortunately, that is not always true. If this film seems to drag a bit at times, that is what it seems. If it seems a bit repetitive and lacking in originality in dialogue and plot situations, that is what it seems. If it seems that the star power of Al Pacino and Colin Farrell aren't enough to raise this film from B-film levels, that is what it seems. Farrell is supposed to be a techno-geek. Okay, most techno-geeks I know do not look like Colin Farrell even on Farrell's worst day. So, suspension of disbelief is required from the outset (one can make the same criticism of Keanu Reeves in the Matrix films, but those were much better films). Farrell as James Clayton is a programmer geek by day, sexy bartender by night (that part is convincing). Clayton is the sort of person that Walter Burke (played by Pacino) seems to want in the CIA, so he sets out to recruit him. Clayton has a secret buried in his past - his father disappeared, and he always suspected that it was a CIA or some similar agency operation that caused it. Forward to 'the farm', a training ground for CIA operatives. Most people wash out, and Clayton (apparently) does, too. However, he is then recruited again by Burke to be a super-sleuth - the kind of operative that works off the books and under the radar. The mission is to secure a computer programme capable of taking over virtually the entire plugged-in world, which exists in the computers of the agency, but nowhere else. Of course, the computers at the agency don't have disc drives or printers or any other such storage devices to make theft easy. This is the first point at which the story goes off the rails, because the theft mechanism appallingly simple, and we find during at least one scene that the agency's computers are internet-linked to an agent's home computer. So much for not being able to get information off the reservation. But I digress. Farrell's confused acting put together with Pacino's overacting lead to a less-than satisfying, anticlimactic denouement. There are plots within plots, and, true to form, the storyline tries to craft each person as being not what he or she seems, except that the viewer can figure out fairly quickly who is and is not in the frame. The deleted scenes don't add much to the overall experience of this film, and the final scene, alas, is definitely a set-up for a sequel, should we ever be so unlucky as to find this being made. If it seems that there was potential for this film, between the actors and the idea, that is what it seems. Unfortunately, it seems that the film could never decide whether to be a mystery or an action film. In the end, it comes close without quite reaching the level of being good at being either. One thing that might be worthwhile is the featurette, 'Spy School: Inside the CIA Training Program' - however, does anyone really believe that the agency is going to put very much of high security value out before the public on a mass-market DVD? Again, nothing is as it seems. This would be a great film to be remade a decade or two from now, with a better script and tighter plot, and a decision as to whether it is in the action or the mystery genre.
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