Spy Game

Spy Game, a 2001 film directed by Tony Scott, is slickly made, looks good, and has some decent acting. But I had almost no reaction watching it--it was like watching people pass by my window. I had nothing invested in the characters, and the attempt to build suspense was technically proficient, but emotionally hollow.

As the film begins, Brad Pitt attempts to break a mysterious prisoner out of a Chinese prison. He's caught, and revealed to be an American spy. He will be executed in 24 hours. The CIA calls in his old boss, Robert Redford, for information about him. Through a series of flashbacks, Redford relates how he recruited Pitt and some of the missions they went on (to indicate Pitt as a younger man, they give him mussed hair).

It dawns on Redford that the CIA is eager to leave Pitt out to dry, and he works stealthily to maneuver around the brass and rescue him, all from inside the CIA headquarters. There's another agent (Stephen Dillane) who has some sort of beef against Redford, and is the cliche of the bureaucratic prick. Oh, and did I mention this all happens on Redford's last day of employment?

The concept of rogue agents is an interesting, albeit overworked theme in spy films, but this one just didn't grab me. Redford is engaging, as the once master spy turned office jockey, and the tricks he plays to get around Dillane are mildly amusing (it's unclear why Dillane hates him so much, but I guess it's just because he's the bureaucratic prick). But there's a romance between Pitt and an aid worker (Catherine McCormack) that doesn't work, which is a problem, because she's the prisoner.

Like most of Tony Scott's work, Spy Game looks expensive (it's set in about a jillion countries and has all sorts of military hardware) but lacks a beating heart. It's kind of a snore.