Shepherd's Lie

I started my new "year at the movies" bright and early, heading out to the theater on New Year's Day.

I only hope that the quality of the film did not set a tone for the rest of 2007.

I went to The Good Shepherd, the drama starring Matt Damon, directed by Robert De Niro. If you haven't seen the film yourself, but have seen the trailers or commercials, you might be of the belief that this film is a bit of a thriller about "the birth of the CIA." Wrong. This is a very long, very slow-paced character study. It's what Eddie Izzard would call a movie about "arranging matches."

It's not that I was expecting action, but I had been led to expect some degree of suspense from time to time. Not so. Anything regarding the CIA is really just incidental to the story, which focuses on the course the main character's life takes as he continually prioritizes the country over his family. And I do mean his life, because the tale spans around 35 years.

It doesn't actually feel that long, I suppose. But 2 hours and 40 minutes have seldom felt longer to me.

Along the way, a large parade of famous actors show up in three-minute character parts. It's an impressive list: Alec Baldwin, William Hurt, Timothy Hutton, Joe Pesci, John Turturro, De Niro himself, and more. Angelina Jolie's part is somewhat more substantial. Some of these other characters showed a bit of life's blood in them, and perhaps if the plot had dwelled on them a little more, there could have been a bit more interest generated.

But no, the film is relentlessly about the cold, distant, and by extension, rather boring main character. It's no real fault of Matt Damon's; he's saddled with a 160 minute performance made up of about 15 minutes' worth of material.

Hoodwinked by another trailer. You'd think I'd know how to recognize when trailers are lying to me every time by now, but nope... the radar still occasionally goes on the fritz.

I give this a D-.