The Recruit

The Recruit is a streamlined conspiracy thriller about a young student, James Clayton, who is recruited by the CIA. James has not really thought along those lines when he is approached by the experienced CIA man Walter Burke, who persuades him to apply. Burke hints that he knows what happened to James's father, who disappeared without trace in 1990.

Together with the other applicants James is driven out to the CIA's training facility, known as the Farm, where the candidates are trained and tested in every possible way. James is among the best, yet he gets the boot when he fails a test - or does he? At any rate he is approached by Burke, who tells him that he has in fact been chosen to be an undercover agent.

James's first assignment is to keep watch on one of his fellow applicants, Layla, who passed. Matters are not made any easier by the fact that James actually fell for Layla during training, and that she is clearly attracted to him too. Is Layla really a double agent?

Even though nothing is what it seems, The Recruit is nevertheless surprisingly predictable. Director Roger Donaldson is good at creating suspense, but that does not hide the fact that the plot is utterly implausible and full of holes.