A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Spy Game

Date Viewed: 12/30/01

Details:

Robert Redford (Nathan Muir)

Brad Pitt (Tom Bishop)

Catherine McCormack

Director: Tony Scott

Score: +

The Review: Taut spy thriller. This movie bounces around in time somewhat. Rooted in an developing 24-hour time-frame, trying to understand the precursors of a critical "event" in China, a series of flashbacks explain the personal and professional history of the recruiter-trainer-mentor relationship between CIA agents Muir (Redford) and Bishop (Pitt). Some wry humor both in how Muir's character is dealing with interrogation by his superiors -- bringing to mind Redford's counter-cultural hacker in Sneakers (1992) -- and in the contradictions the audience sees him place in front of his trainee during the flashbacks. Interesting, occasionally disturbing, highlights in the life of a CIA agent from early Vietnam through the early 1990's, including interludes in Germany (although filmed in the dingy back-streets of Budapest) and Beirut.

Both Redford and Pitt are quite good; it's a bit like watching father and son. Redford's wrinkles (this time) lend him some credibility as an agent on the cusp of retirement, and Pitt is surprisingly agile in his role. Muir's CIA superiors are smarmy, coy, close-mouthed, annoying, intrusive, prying SOB's -- good acting, I suppose, but these are not engaging characters -- and it is clear from the beginning that he is being groomed as the fall guy for something that the audience only gradually learns about. Quite a few good twists and turns. Watch for the establishment of "Dinner Out."

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