Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit ***
Jason Bourne has created such a high benchmark for any non-007 action film that all seem a poor imitation in comparison. Even more unfortunate is Jack Ryan is a much admired character from the Tom Clancy school of espionage brilliance and very different from Bourne, but the action part of any film adaptation will always be compared. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, which tries to reboot the franchise, is a serviceable enough but feels lacking in anything distinctive to lift it free from the Bourne net for a current audience. That said there is a great retro baddie to enjoy.
We are taken back to when Ryan (Chris Pine) was a mere student, witnessing the 9/11 attacks on the US on TV while studying in the UK. Next, Ryan is a marine serving his country in Afghanistan when a tragic accident onboard a military helicopter happens. We then witness how Ryan and his partner Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley) first get together, to how he becomes the spy we know him as, recruited by ‘man of the shadows’ CIA agent Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner). With his head for figures, Ryan must stop a Russian terrorist threat to US financial security and go into operational duty for the first time, up against the sinister Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh).
To be honest, there is a certain likeability to Pine in this role, purely because he epitomises the all-American boy thrust into active duty, when all Ryan wants to be is a desk-bound geek on Wall Street. Ryan does not share Bourne’s ingrained survival streak, so his mishandling of a lot of situations seems apt. Pine’s biggest problem is overcoming his notoriety as Captain Kirk. He does in this, and makes a convincing new spy recruit completely out of his depth (bathroom scene). Part of that is down to heavyweight Costner who has a certain unchallenged gravitas to such a genre and is actually the puppet master in this. In this sense, it’s fertile ground for Pine to explore new territory after his less serious spook turn in This Means War.
One of the bizarre things to get your head around with the latest Jack Ryan is not Pine but some against-type casting: From Knightley trying to be an American gal (but coming across as a plumy Brit trying to do an accent still) to thespian Branagh as the most stereotypical Russian baddie in years, complete with an accent that could cut glass. There is even a fleeting appearance by former Brookside actor Michael ‘Sinbad’ Starke as an auto-plant worker. There is always a split-second incredulous reaction to be had before things settle and you are back in the equally incredulous but enjoyable tale. Thank goodness for the anchor in such a film that is Costner that stops things becoming a farce.
That said Branagh injects such theatrics into his part that he steals much of the show, however ridiculous proceedings are, and there is a nice little tense and flirtageous dinner scene between him and Knightley. In fact it’s a pleasant change to witness these actors doing something different and it does work, if only because Branagh’s direction seems as experimental as his casting. It becomes hard to knock in that sense.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is indulgently enjoyable with a dose of old-school villainy in a techno world but seems a little tame, even superficial for a sincere Clancy screen revival. However, even if this ‘simplified’ version may not appease all fans, it does open up the character to a wider audience bred on Bourne and action-packed 007 films of recent years. It is a shame that Ryan is not more cerebral, in honour of the literary character, but that would mean an entirely different film, and not one that follows the action tropes of downtown carnage and explosions – which some of the more astute have pointed out, the latter seem lacking in the actual film but are plentiful in the trailer.
3/5 stars
By @FilmGazer
