High-Level Reboot for ‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit’

Rating: 4.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Actor Chris Pine should use the term “Rebooter” as his middle name. After taking on the Captain Kirk role in the “Star Trek” series, he now is the latest to portray CIA super spy as “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit,” a literate and pulse racing adventure directed by Kenneth Branagh.

It all starts with a legitimate story, and the script by Adam Cozad and David Koepp keeps everything in line with today’s geopolitical atmosphere. Director Branagh – who also takes on the villain role – brings in an artsy paranoia to the proceedings, and creates the action based on a step-by-step terrorist mystery that connects right back to September 11th. Pine has a empathetic naturalism as the latest Jack Ryan, a reluctant operative if there ever was one, concerned more with the deception of his shadow life and his fiancee than the mission, until the two intersect. This is an entertaining 105 minutes, filled with real-life implications and genuine current events.

Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) is a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics on September 11th, 2001, and leaves his studies to fight as a Marine in Afghanistan. Injured when his helicopter is shot down, he rehabilitates under the care of medical therapist Cathy Muller (Keira Knightley), who he tries to woo. He is also being observed by the mysterious Thomas Harper (Kevin Costner), a recruiter for the CIA.

Meet the Spook: Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) and Harper (Kevin Costner) in ‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Photo credit: Paramount Pictures

The agency wants Ryan for their counterterrorism unit, with his knowledge of international market fluctuations in currency. He goes undercover on Wall Street, and eventually moves in with Cathy. Ryan alerts the CIA when he notices a Russian firm is hiding assets, and is assigned the case with Harper as his wingman. Financier Viktor Cherevin (Branagh) is conspiring to collapse the economy, and the mission is complicated when Cathy gets involved.

Sound intriguing? Well, it is, in the sense that this terrorist act is all too possible in a volatile numbers market run by super computers. Although the good guys are the CIA, which is getting to be a laugh, there was a sense of Cold War nostalgia in having the Russkies as the bad guys again, and Branagh takes on the accent and mustache twirl as the vengeful evil with a number of Achilles Heel points.

And like his direction in the first “Thor” movie, Branagh frames the story with Shakespearian themes, including revenge, a wartime past, mysterious characters and a love story. His portrayal of Cherevin is dripping with an underlying fear of death, both of his person and Mother Russia. There are messages and shot composition that are positively artsy, and he has a cast that understands how to pull it off.

Pine is now both Captain Kirk and Jack Ryan. Why not cast him as Batman over Ben Affleck? He knows how to do thinking man’s action heroes, and what is most honest about his Ryan was his intellect, tempered by a war injury. His fatal flaw is Knightley’s Cathy, who cannot accept his proposal. She does distracts a bit with her Katharine Hepburn American accent, but Knightley also play a key scene so cooly that you can’t imagine anyone else doing it. There is something about her.

Cathy (Keira Knightley) Sees the Light in ‘Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Photo credit: Paramount Pictures

Costner slips into his twilight career as a decent mentor with his Harper, and even gets to don black operative clothes and do a Lee Harvey Oswald with a high powered rifle. It’s those type of twists that adds flavor to this undercover story, and Branagh balances the motivations with actual action movie results of those motivations. It makes this reboot honorable, instinctive and extremely entertaining, all the way to climax in New York City – that terrorism town.

The screenwriters and Branagh recognize the international financial world, connected to each other by their lust for geopolitical power and money. Everything is immeshed in these numbers, including the profit of war, death and terror. As a heroic movie guy, the new Jack Ryan understands this truth.

[15]	By PATRICK McDONALD [16] Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com [15]