Release Date – 10/28/2011 (limited)
Paul Shepherdson is a retired CIA operative who spent most of his career hunting down a Russian assassin known as Cassius, with no success. There hasn’t been any lead in the case in many years. But when a United States Senator is murdered in the same style Cassius was known for, Shepherdson comes out of retirement at the request of his former boss. He joins up with a young FBI agent who has been obsessed with Shepherdson and the Cassius case for most of his life. Now they have a few leads to go on to reopen the case in order to finally put the Soviet assassin down. But not everyone on the good guy’s team is telling the truth. The movie has a few twists and turns to keep the viewer entertained but it also gets a bit confusing at times.
Richard Gere plays Paul Shephersdon. Flashbacks are shown to 1988 where he first becomes obsessed with finding the man known only as Cassius. We don’t really know his true motives until much later in the film. But he does have a personal vendetta. Gere doesn’t give a great performance. He shows little emotion and energy throughout the film. Martin Sheen has a small role as Shepherdson’s boss Tom Highland. He’s a big dog at the CIA and wants this case to finally wrap up. I would have liked to see Sheen and Gere with some more screen time together though. Sheen is criminally underused. Instead we are introduced to Topher Grace’s character, Agent Ben Geary of the FBI. His college thesis was on the Cassius case and he has wanted a chance to finish it out for most of his adult life. Shepherdson and Geary become a team but you can tell they aren’t being completely truthful with or trusting of one another. Leading to several plot twists.
Its hard to talk much more about the movie without giving away several twists. The first one comes only a half hour into the film, but if you’ve seen the trailer than you already know it. I already knew it so it wasn’t surprising to me in the least but it would DEFINITELY shock the casual movie goer who doesn’t scour the Internet to watch every trailer for every movie. Revealing it so early (and in the trailer) may have hurt the film in the long run. The other twists come toward the end of the film to wrap up what seems a bit confusing before the conclusion. The end does a nice job of bringing everything together and clearing up some madness. I was kind of getting bored at the beginning of the Third Act and the film is only a tad over 90 minutes. It is the first directorial effort from writer Michael Brandt who wrote such screenplays as 3:10 to Yuma, Wanted and 2 Fast 2 Furious. So he knows how to write action but instead goes with the spy thriller here. Maybe a little dose of action would have helped put it over the edge because it doesn’t quite make it there. Still not a bad film though.
IMDB – N/A
Rotten Tomatoes – N/A
Movie Wiseguys – 7/10