Movie Review: Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Starring: Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Keira Knightley and Kenneth Branagh

Director: Kenneth Branagh
In a few words...: Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan rebooted: the reluctant CIA analyst-turned-operative is on the hunt for a Russian terrorist planning a crippling terrorist strike that will send America into another Great Depression.
 
Rating: 9/10 

Beware: SPOILERS AHEAD

I'm a giant fan of the late Tom Clancy's novels, gobbling up every entry to his complex world as soon as possible, and I've learned over the years to go into a movie based on either Clancy's books or his characters without expecting to be gripped by the same intricate narrative that makes his best-selling stories so complex and thrilling. Film and books are a different animal, of course, and it's very much the case with Clancy's work that - and you'll excuse the old cliche, because it's true - the book is always better than the movie.

The latest cinematic incarnation of Jack Ryan, Clancy's hero, is based only on characters in the novels. Without the blueprint of a novel to go off, writers Adam Cozad and David Koepp have put together a taut and relevant screenplay, which captures the best of Jack Ryan and the geopolitical complexities that have been a hallmark of all of Clancy's best work.

Ryan (Pine) is drawn into the realm of operational fieldwork following his stint as a United States Marine Corps lieutenant went awry, thanks to a debilitating accident caused by a helicopter crash in war-torn Afghanistan in 2003. This is Ryan rebooted, for a modern age, no longer a Cold War era hero. He is at the London school of Economics when 9/11 happens, drops out, enlists in the Marines, suffers the accident on combat duty and is nursed back to health by a beautiful nurse, Cathy Muller (Knightley) at the Walter Reed Medical Centre. The Marine stint, the helicopter crash and the resulting back injury are a part of Clancy's Ryan canon. Albeit, those events, in the books, took place decades earlier.

Fast forward three years, and Ryan has begun living with the doctor who helped him to walk again, and is working for the Central Intelligence Agency, recruited by Thomas Harper (Costner), a commander in the United States Navy who is seconded to the CIA. Working on Wall Street, because he holds a PhD in Economics. His job is to trace money that financial types around the world are funneling into terrorist operations. That work makes him aware of a Russian named Viktor Cheverin (Branagh), a jaded veteran of the Russian campaign in Afghanistan, who is making serious moves on the stock-market, leading Ryan to think he's setting up the American economy for a big fall, to be preceded by a terrorist attack on US soil.

Despite being just an analyst, Ryan is sent to Moscow, and gets on Cheverin's bad side straight away, avoiding an assassination attempt by a Cheverin security crony before a face-to-face meeting with Cheverin himself. Complicating things is Cathy's appearance in Moscow. She thinks Ryan is having an affair, and so is relieved to learn that his regular subterfuge is due to him working for the Agency. Unwittingly, she is drawn into Harper's operation to steal data necessary to determine the extent of Cheverin's plans. 

A Mission: Impossible-like scene where Ryan breaks into Cheverin's headquarters to steal said data, whilst Cathy occupies the Russian villain, is executed incredibly slickly. Pine is every bit the dashing hero. Better than Ben Affleck, certainly, though with a way to go to be as good as Harrison Ford was in Patriot Games and Clear & Present Danger. It's gripping stuff. A car chase through the streets of Moscow reminded me of something Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay might've used a decade before.

Those frenetic scenes in the Russian capital nicely sets up the final phase of the story, involving Russian sleeper agents in America, including one who has a significant personal connection to Cheverin, a bomb to be set under the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, and the inevitable chance for Ryan to become the hero. It's a somewhat improbable ending - over-sized heroics from the main character, who doesn't even bother with a bulletproof vest - but it's impressive nonetheless. 

The ending, specifically the way the Cheverin plot ended, was surprising, and not how these sorts of things usually go. Then again, this wasn't just a regular action film. How many movies have you seen where the main character isn't a born-to-kill guy, but an economics expert working on Wall Street? One review I read called Jack Ryan a "thinking man's action hero" and that's about right, too. It was a nice entry amongst some action blockbusters that've been far too predictable of late.

In Clancy's world, terrorists don't just blow things up. There are reasons, often financial or political, behind them. It's never cut-and-dry like, say, a Die Hard film. I liked that such an element was incorporated into the plot of Shadow Recruit. It could just have been about Cheverin blowing up the Brooklyn Bridge. Instead, a far more creative and interesting script was written. It reminded me of what you might find in the pages of a Tom Clancy novel. A fitting tribute to the author.

The cast was great. Pine has real potential to grow into the Jack Ryan roll and did nicely in the discomforting scenes where Jack is getting used to the idea of being a field agent and killing people for a living. The lovely Kiera Knightley is as charming as ever, and I thought Kevin Costner, oft-maligned, did a great job as Ryan's CIA mentor. I hope he has a role in any sequels. Branagh was superb, a Brit playing a Russian, and he did it with just the right amount of menace and suave. His scenes with Knightley in the Moscow restaurant were some of the best in the film.

As an aside, I was a little disappointed that Clancy favourite John Clark (pretty much Jack Ryan's alter ego), didn't play a part in the story, but hopefully the franchise continues and Clark gets a role. There's certainly plenty of material out there for future screenplays. It's been too long since the last Jack Ryan film - the average Sum of All Fears with Ben Affleck - so here's hoping that we don't have to wait quite so long this time around!