The Good Shepherd

Well-upholstered but overstuffed and lumpy, Robert DeNiro’s film -- from an Eric Roth script -- is earnest and well-meaning, but a chore to sit through or on. It endeavors to tell the story of the CIA through a character based on James Jesus Angleton and played by Matt Damon, from Skull & Bones initiation at Yale through development of OSS in WWII to the Bay of Pigs and beyond. The cast rounds up a talented bunch of the usual suspects, from Alec Baldwin, William Hurt, and Michael Gambon, to Billy Crudup as the Kim Philby-type and Angelina Jolie as the suffering wife of the close-mouthed and withholding main character. The film tries for a LeCarre-like depiction of spycraft and counterintelligence, but winds up muddled and befuddling, while also mounting Godfather-like set pieces, from weddings to Bonesmen rituals. There’s good stuff in it (confirmed by recent release of CIA's "family jewels"), and good points about the liabilities of secrecy and disinformation, but it’s all too much. Or too little, when it comes to emotional involvement with characters or story. (2006, dvd, n.) *6-* (MC-61.)