"Spy Game" is the new espionage thriller directed by Tony Scott ("Top Gun," "Enemy of the State") and starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. The movie is an enjoyable romp that spans almost 20 years and encompasses undercover missions throughout the world. And even more surprisingly, it's a film that possesses a certain intelligence, and even dares to raise a few moral questions about the necessary human costs of completing such missions.
The movie begins with a fantastic opening scene set in 1991, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Tom Bishop (Pitt) is engaging in a daring rescue from a high-security Chinese prison. The job is almost done, and he is about to escape with his rescued prisoner, but a security guard catches on just in time to halt the escape. Bishop is apprehended and thrown in jail. He now has 24 hours before he will be executed.
The news spreads quickly to the CIA, and to Bishop's mentor Nathan Muir (Redford). The CIA bigwigs, portrayed with enough appropriate smugness and sleaze by Stephen Pillane and Larry Bryggman, want to distance themselves from Bishop and his operation so that important trade talks with China are not compromised. To them, Bishop is expendable.
Muir naturally has other plans. He preaches that a spy can never leave himself vulnerable for another, but a series of flashbacks elucidates why he will make an exception for Bishop. Now that it is Muir's last day, he is free to pull all the strings available to him in an attempt to coordinate an underhanded rescue of Bishop before the execution deadline is reached.
The movie consists of two basic stories. There is the extensive and occasionally hurried backstory of Muir and his recruitment of Bishop and some early missions they ran together in Vietnam, Berlin and Beirut. The other thread is in the present, and Muir is using his entire bag of tricks on his own superiors to save Bishop from death.
The most enjoyable flashback scenes are the ones of Muir passing on his tricks of the trade to Bishop. The flashbacks also included some interesting missions that were hampered only by the fact that they weren't developed more fully. The main impetus of the backstory, however, is Bishop falling in love with one of his "assets," a foreign aid worker named Elizabeth Hadley, played by Katherine McCormick. Falling for an asset goes against Muir's principle rule, and sure enough, trouble soon follows.
The major drawback to the flashback method of this movie is that Pitt's talents get lost in the shuffle. The manner in which the story is told seem to push him into the background. Redford, however, still proves he can carry a movie and is fantastic as the crafty old CIA agent. He turns in a far better performance than his most recent turn in "The Last Castle."
Due mostly to Redford, the present narration is the most engaging aspect of the movie. Muir's many clever methods of subtle deceit and observation to get the best of a building full of spies are thoroughly enjoyable.
It's great to watch him manipulating his superiors, piecing together an entire rescue mission without ever leaving CIA headquarters.
If anything, viewers can thank this movie for finally producing a sensible plot. It's refreshing in that the only problems come from the make-up department, who apparently had no clue how to make Pitt or Redford look different over a 20-year period.
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Despite the strong plot, the movie is hard to fully delve into due to its loud soundtrack, which comes close to drowning out some dialogue. It wasn't necessary for hard rock music to accompany Redford's explanations of important missions.
Also, some of director Scott's jarring cuts and sweeping visuals seem more fitting for a Busta Rhymes music video than a movie like this. But many of these shots are extremely impressive and interesting. Recall some of the great jump shots and zoom-ins in "Enemy of the State," if you've seen it.
This movie, however, has a solid enough story and doesn't need to have music, subtitles and freezeframes every few minutes. Some of these effects appear to stem less from trying to move the story forward and more from Scott being paranoid about losing viewer interest. If he had trusted the script, perhaps this movie could have been filmed in a more subtle and effective manner.
Despite the strong acting and tight plot, "Spy Game" falls short of what it might have achieved. Pitt does not give his usual standout performance, and the directing interferes with some of the storytelling. "Spy Game" would be a great rental, but considering the relative lack of quality movies in the theatre, it might be worth checking out.
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