Spy Game

Why does every movie indulge in a love subplot? Do we need Brad Pitt's deep-cover spy to fall for an exiled aid-worker? Some stories should be only about killing people and telling lies, and saving friends, I guess, if they need to. But definitely not about killing people, telling lies, saving friends, and courting ladies. Robert Redford is too beautiful to be jerked around like that, sometimes training deadly assassins, other times lecturing his protege on running around with the girls. It's all very busy and clamorous.

That's one problem. Another is the film's total lack of subtlety. Its heroes are like Kantian supermen born to validate the Categorical Imperative. Its villains are all Richard III. Also, I've seen the Citizen Kane frame device too many times now to find it very effective or radical; it's mostly just a lazy way of telling us things we otherwise wouldn't know, and to be honest, I didn't even like it in Citizen Kane.

On a positive note, for two hours we get to look at handsome men being sneaky, and that's fine by me. C