Spy Game

Tony Scott directing. His usual bag of jump-cutting, camera-zooming visual tricks. A plot involving Cold War paranoia, a world weary older hand and a stop-at-nothing intelligence team. Sounds familiar, right?

While the bad news is that Spy Game isn’t anything especially new, the good news is that it’s better than the overrated Enemy Of The State, the lack of producer-extraordinaire Jerry Bruckheimer (Scott’s usual partner in blowing things up good) meaning we can forget about pandering to teenage boys and get on with some storytelling.

During his last day before retirement, cynical CIA veteran Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) finds out that his idealistic protégé Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) has been captured by the Chinese government and to be executed in 24 hours. While being quizzed about Bishop by bureau bosses at Headquarters, Muir manipulates events behind the scenes to save his former pupil as the clock ticks down.

Narrative-wise, the plot does pose some interesting questions (How far do you go to achieve your aims? Does the end justify the means?), but that’s not what this movie is about. Instead, Tony’s latest spends its just-over-two-hours running time weaving a complicated and fast-moving web of espionage laced with double-crosses, covert missions and a lot of flashbacks. Surprisingly for the director, there’s not a lot of action – but that’s more than okay. Spy Game is at its most watchable whenever Nathan uses his old school spy experience to outwit the bureaucratic bosses in the office as he pulls strings and they chase tails.

Which brings us to the picture’s undoubted highlight – Redford. Pitt gets pass marks, but its Redford who makes the flick work watching, taking what could have been a standard ‘jaded mentor’ part and making it much more. Older perhaps, but the former Sundance Kid still has a sparkle in his eyes and that look like he’s up to something you don’t know about – which is perfect here.

Ultimately, a fairly conventional spy thriller by Tony Scott, Spy Game is elevated no end by Robert Redford’s sheer star presence.