Fresh Recruit

It's usually not a good sign when a studio releases a movie in January. (Unless it was previewed in New York and Los Angeles in December, anyway.) That general rule is what kept me from going to see Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit when it arrived early this year. But it still looked interesting to me, so I decided to throw it in the Netflix queue. The movie turned out to be a very pleasant surprise indeed.

A film franchise reboot of author Tom Clancy's famous Jack Ryan character, Shadow Recruit casts Chris Pine in the role previously played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Ben Affleck. (It's seems as though there have been nearly as many Jack Ryans as James Bonds.) As before, the character is portrayed as an intelligence analyst unexpectedly thrust into a more "operational" role. Also as before, the story nods to Clancy's Cold War era politics, despite a modern day update -- Russians are the villains.

But the particular appeal of this movie is that it's a rather more cerebral thriller, while still remaining very much an action adventure. The main plot revolves around currency manipulation, a cyber crime more representative of the modern age. But the writing is clever enough that it's totally believable when this road leads to murder attempts, cover-ups, and undercover ops.

It's also more clever than most action films in using its female lead, Kiera Knightley. Yes, she does predictably become a damsel in distress at one point, and no, I don't think the movie actually passes the Bechdel test (by giving her another female character to interact with). Still, she grows into more than Jack Ryan's love interest as the story unfolds; like the hero, she too is thrust into an "operational" role.

Individually and as a couple, Pine and Knightley have plenty of charisma to propel the film. They're supported by Kevin Costner (as Ryan's "handler") and Kenneth Branagh (who has great fun chewing the scenery as the villain). Branagh is also the director here, confirming that his foray into blockbusters -- Thor -- was not a one-time thing. He keeps the tension here moving along at a brisk pace, as skilled here with action as he's always been with more "respectable" fare like Shakespeare.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit doesn't really do anything you haven't seen in an action spy thriller before. But what it does, it does quite a bit better than most films in the genre. It's a very strong B+, and I'd welcome the news if another Jack Ryan film with this cast was put into production.