Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Starring: Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, Kenneth Branagh
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Reviewed by Brendan Dousi
Rating: [rating: 3/5]
2014 is coming into full swing, instead of mainly getting the Oscar-bait films released last year in America, we’re finally getting some true 2014 releases. Enter our first true action film of the year, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Directed by the dapper Kenneth Branagh and starring Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner and Branagh himself, this Tom Clancy character is brought to life on screen for the fifth time. With previous instalments starring the likes of Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck, Chris Pine has some pretty big shoes to fill. Will his leading man charisma pay off, or will this film just prove a dud to throw onto the increasingly large pile of Jack Ryan adaptations?
After a somewhat awkward start which shoehorns in 9/11 being Jack Ryan’s (Chris Pine) main motivation to become a marine that is both smart and heroic, dragging his Marine friends out of a crashed helicopter with a broken spine, a surprising amount of time is spent on who Jack Ryan is and what makes him tick. He suffers through intense physical therapy with the help of Med Student Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley) during which is heroic deeds and his unfinished Doctorate thesis is noticed by CIA agent Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner) who recruits Jack as an analyst that is to infiltrate Wall Street to make sure “Something like 9/11 doesn’t happen again”. Jack agrees to serve his country in a strictly ‘Desk Job’ capacity, he infiltrates Wall Street and is excellent at his job. He has the perfect partner in Cathy and life is going pretty swell. That is until certain accounts are being hidden from them from their Russian partner, Viktor Cherevin (Branagh), and Jack is thrust from behind his desk and ordered to Russia to investigate just where this money is going and what nefarious things it may be used for. Naturally, action and intrigue ensue.
Despite its shaky start, the majority of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is actually a very interesting and enjoyable movie. It approaches a more realistic side of the ‘spy’ game by showing a man who is simply an analyst and is thrust into a world he is definitely not prepared for. The first fight he faces is messy, brutal and he barely escapes it alive. Jack Ryan is definitely no super-spy. He’s just the only man they have for the job. It’s a joy to watch this character get beaten up and being put through his paces and barely scraping through, a very welcome change that Pine pulls off quite well matching the action scenes on screen with an equally physical performance.
The support cast all do their jobs well, but not in any particular way that stands out. Branagh speaks with an acceptable Russian accent as Cherevin, avoiding the easily camp nature of the Russian villain. Keira Knightley is a nice addition as Cathy, a smart and independent partner to Jack, even if her American accent does slip once or twice. Kevin Costner as Thomas Harper is the stoic, man’s-man father figure- well, he’s Kevin Costner.
While the final act does fall victim to a lot of “Where’s the bomb!?” action movie clichés, the first two acts are very solid and the film as a whole is quite enjoyable. That said, it’s definitely nothing special. There’s very little here that you wouldn’t have seen before and for something that sits within the ‘espionage’ genre, there’s next to no twists or turns to actually keep you on the edge of your seat. The whole film just kind of washes over you. It’s a decent film, to be sure, but definitely a forgettable one.
While it is light on the twists and turns, this is a more basic espionage-action film that still aims to entertain and please. If you’re after a nice solid, enjoyable action film to pass the time then you can definitely do a lot worse than Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
