Movie 2005.11.04 - The Recruit

Billed as a psychological thriller, this movie stars Al Pacino as the CIA recruiter and Colin Farrell and Bridget Moynahan as his recruits. The plot is quite simple. Pacino recruits Farrell to join the CIA. He, together with a bunch of newbies, gets trained at The Farm. For failing a torture test, he was discharged. Pacino picks him up again, and gives him a mission to expose Moynahan, who's trying to steal the Ice9 computer virus. However, as the tagline says, nothing is what it seems.

There's a fine line between genius and insanity. The same goes for this movie. Either the script is so ingeniously-written that it keeps the audience guessing till the end, OR it's shot full of plotholes that anything goes. When Pacino recruited Farrell, was he already working for the "enemy"? Like he said, "I'm a scary judge of talent." If he knew Farrell is so good, it should've occurred to him that there's a chance that Farrell might eventually expose him. Why not just get an unthinking agent who'll blindly to his bidding? Who is Moynahan (and Zack) working for? Were they simply doing their jobs, or were they being manipulated by Pacino or the Iranians? Why involve Farrell in the first place? At the end of the "mission", Moynahan will hand over the Ice9 virus to Pacino anyway. Is the Ice9 really a deadly virus as Farrell alleges, or is it just a dummy software Moynahan is smuggling out to test CIA security? If it's the real thing, then why can't Farrell make the reconstructed code work? Given how smart Pacino's character is, why is he so stupid as to make an unprovoked confession, and not notice that all the guns are trained at Farrell initially instead of him? But did Pacino's character actually die? Is Zack dead? Is it all part of one last test to see if Farrell's good enough to be the NOC?

Lots of questions, but here's what I think. Pacino's character is definitely the bad guy. After years of working for the CIA, he's tired of everything and wants the easy ($3M) way out. He's trying to sell the Ice9 computer virus, but he needs someone to get it out of CIA, and he needs someone to take the fall. Early on in The Farm, he has already started pairing Moynahan with Farrell. Moynahan was later tasked to to smuggle out a dummy software to test CIA security. Pacino switches the code, so Moynahan ends up taking out the real virus. Pacino convinces Farrell that Moynahan is an enemy sleeper and his mission is to intercept her and bring him the code. Stupid CIA agents that they are, everything is going according to Pacino's plan. Trigger-happy Farrell accidentally kills Zack and freaks out. Pacino tells him a cockamamie story about everything being yet another test, but this time Farrell is too paranoid to believe anyone or anything anymore. In another stupid move, Pacino falls for Farrell's I-just-webcasted-your-plot-to-the-whole-world ruse, and makes another incriminating speech in front of the assembled CIA agents, and down he goes.

This is not a test. I repeat, this is not a test.