JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUITGenre: Action/Thriller
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Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit - film reviewReviewed by: Mark Geraghty
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Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a reboot for Tom Clancy’s CIA analyst-turned-agent, who, in his literary adventures, helped to save the “free world” on more than one occasion. The film adventures of Jack Ryan started with Alec Baldwin, continued with Harrison Ford and was last on the big screen with Ben Affleck in the title role. For this new film, Chris Pine, who has played Captain Kirk in the last two ‘Star Trek’ movies, has taken on the Jack Ryan role; albeit as a younger, less experienced version than the one audiences are used to seeing.
In an extended clip from the film, viewers get to see Chris Pine engage in some serious action as he is forced to defend himself in his hotel room upon arriving in Moscow. The scene is pivotal is transforming Pine's Jack Ryan from a CIA Analyst to a field operative forced to use all his military survival skills just to stay alive.
The film starts with Ryan attending an English university as a mathematics major on the day of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York. The action jumps forward 18 months to Afghanistan, where Ryan has become a US Marine in a show of personal patriotism. Ryan is seriously injured on a helicopter mission but manages to save the lives of two fellow Marines. Ryan’s courage under fire, along with his ability to decipher complex problems, brings him to the attention of CIA operative Thomas Harper, played by Kevin Costner. At the same time he is approached by the Agency, he strikes up a relationship with his rehab physician, Dr Cathy Muller, played by the always-gorgeous Keira Knightley.
The story jumps forward ten years to 2013 and Ryan, who is now entrenched as a CIA operative, is a financial compliance analyst for a Wall Street firm. Ryan’s attention is caught by a Russian company that is investing heavily in US dollars and a trip to Moscow results in the transformation of Ryan from analyst to field operative.
There’s a lot to like about ‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit’. For one, there’s Chris Pine. The jury’s still out about whether Pine is a bona fide movie star, but he’s easy to watch in everything he does. In ‘Jack Ryan’, he’s best in the film’s quieter moments, especially in his scenes with Kevin Costner after his life has been threatened by a private security officer who has been sent to collect Ryan from the Moscow Airport. There’s not nearly as much swagger in the Ryan character as ‘Star Trek’s’ Kirk, but Pine brings an honesty to Ryan, as he struggles to balance the escalation of his professional life with the love he has for Cathy.
The story jumps forward ten years to 2013 and Ryan, who is now entrenched as a CIA operative, is a financial compliance analyst for a Wall Street firm. Ryan’s attention is caught by a Russian company that is investing heavily in US dollars and a trip to Moscow results in the transformation of Ryan from analyst to field operative.
There’s a lot to like about ‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit’. For one, there’s Chris Pine. The jury’s still out about whether Pine is a bona fide movie star, but he’s easy to watch in everything he does. In ‘Jack Ryan’, he’s best in the film’s quieter moments, especially in his scenes with Kevin Costner after his life has been threatened by a private security officer who has been sent to collect Ryan from the Moscow Airport. There’s not nearly as much swagger in the Ryan character as ‘Star Trek’s’ Kirk, but Pine brings an honesty to Ryan, as he struggles to balance the escalation of his professional life with the love he has for Cathy.
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Kenneth Branagh is also good as the Russian patriot Viktor Cherevin. The character starts off as a one-note villain, but grows as the story develops and develops a degree of sympathy as the audience learns that his act of patriotism has underlying symbolism for him. The script uncomfortably inserts Keira Knightley’s character into the Moscow segment of the story, but, as a result, her presence helps deliver the film’s best sustained set-piece. In a scene vaguely reminiscent of ‘Casino Royale’, the Second Act of ‘Shadow Recruit’ is built around a dinner scene between Pine, Knightley and Branagh.
The Third Act of the film stumbles quite badly, as massive logic leaps are required to keep the story moving toward its conclusion. At 105 minutes, ‘Shadow Recruit’ moves at a good pace, but a little more time and care should have been taken with the action sequences back in New York to provide the pay-off to what had been a pretty good set-up in the First and Second Acts. One ‘coincidence’ is especially on-the-nose and made it hard to maintain a suspension-of-disbelief because the story is so clumsy in its use. Fortunately, because of the film’s fairly conservative $60 million budget, there’s little in the way of Hollywood’s current ‘destruction porn’ obsession. The final minutes of the New York sequence are more like Christopher Nolan’s treatment of ‘war’ action in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, relying more on physical action than CGI rendered destruction. Kenneth Branagh is much more an actor’s Director than he is an ‘Action Director’ and ‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit’ benefits from his ability to get the most out of Chris Pine, Keira Knightley and Kevin Costner. There’s subtlety and nuance in the scenes where he simply plants the camera and records two people talking. Unlike his handling of the action material in ‘Thor’, he doesn’t quite deliver what audiences have come to expect of the set-pieces on show in other spy franchises such as Bond, Mission: Impossible or Bourne. |
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Production Images |
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a solid effort and no one’s reputation is going to be damaged as a result of being associated with the film. It asks the audience to make a couple of leaps that it shouldn’t have and lets itself down with its poor attention to story detail in its last 20 minutes. Unfortunately, the financial performance of the film in the US has been moderate and it will struggle to recoup its production budget in that market. Elsewhere, the film has played better and its international performance may be enough to convince producers, distributors and financiers that a follow-up is worth developing as the on-screen talent of Pine, Knightley and Costner works exceptionally well. ‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit’ is a solid effort to reboot Tom Clancy’s most famous character, but, if there is a next time, it may be worth referencing the literary source material rather than a new story. Let’s face it; Clancy didn’t sell all those books because they were bad!
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Production InformationThis original story follows a young Jack (Chris Pine) as he uncovers a financial terrorist plot. The story follows him from 9/11, through his tour of duty in Afghanistan, which scarred him forever, and into his early days in the Financial Intelligence Unit of the modern CIA where he becomes an analyst, under the guardianship of his handler, Harper (Kevin Costner). When Ryan believes he’s uncovered a Russian plot to collapse the United States economy, he goes from being an analyst to becoming a spy and must fight to save his own life and those of countless others, while also trying to protect the thing that's more important to him than anything, his relationship with his fiancée Cathy (Keira Knightley).
'Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit' was directed by Kenneth Branagh, the noted Shakespearean actor who came to prominence with his film adaptation of 'Henry V' when he was just 29 years old. This film will be Branagh's thirteenth feature as Director, but only his second outright 'blockbuster'. The first being the well-received film adaptation of Marvel's popular 'Thor' which starred Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman. The movie was written by David Koepp and Adam Cozad. Koepp is a familiar name to genre audiences, as his previous credits include 'Jurassic Park', its sequel, 'Mission: Impossible', 'Spider-Man' and Steven Spielberg's 'War Of The Worlds'. At the opposite end of the spectrum, 'Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit' is Adam Cozad's first feature film writing credit. Patrick Doyle is credited with the film's musical score. Doyle, a long-time Branagh collaborator, has a wealth of experience scoring movies and has a diverse range of credits including 'Brave', 'Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire', 'Bridget Jone's Diary', Branagh's version of 'Frankenstein' and 'Carlito's Way'. |
Branagh also turned to a known collaborator in Haris Zambarloukos to provide the film's cinematography. Zambarloukos is a British film industry vetran and has an extensive resume of short and feature film credits. He worked with Branagh on 'Thor', but has displayed diversity lensing various projects including the film adaptation of the ABBA musical 'Mamma Mia'.
Academy Award winner Martin Walsh served as the film's Editor, so the pacing and shot selection should be first-rate. Walsh, won numerous awards including the Academy Award for 'Chicago', has also worked on a number of genre projects over the last decade, including 'V for Vendetta', 'Clash of the Titans', 'Wrath of the Titans' and Jonathan Frakes' 'Thunderbirds' movie. Art direction was supervised by Stuart Kearns, who has worked on numerous genre films, including 'The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian', 'Eragon' and 'Wrath of the Titans'. Prior to his promotion to Supervising Art Director, Kearns worked in different Art Department roles on films such as 'Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol', 'Batman Begins', 'Hellboy' and 'Reign Of Fire'. Kearns was supported by Neal Callow and Dean Clegg. The overall production design was managed by Andrew Laws, whose recent work has been more in the comedy genre with films like' The Break Up', Jim Carey's 'Yes Man' and 'What To Expect When You're Expecting'. No less than seven companies have been involved in the production of 'Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit'. A number of companies, lead by Skydance Productions, have funded the film; while Di Bonaventura Pictures has managed the physical production. Paramount Pictures is the main distributor and will manage marketing & release globally. 'Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit' runs for 105 minutes and is due out in Australia on January 16, 2014. |
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Production Posters
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