Our Christmas evening movie this year was The Good Shepherd. This dark look at the CIA and its founding, through the fictional story of the director responsible for planning the Bay of Pigs invasion, is generally strong, and worth the nearly 2.5 hours it asks of the audience. Still, I didn’t enjoy it as much as the rest of the group. It’s trying pretty hard, and sometimes you notice.
I thought the historical back-and-forth worked, as you watched Matt Damon’s character pitch backwards in time to his introduction to the Agency while he worked through the current cleanup of his botched operation. I just didn’t consider his connections to his family, especially to his son, to be strong enough to occasion the conflict presented at the end of the movie. Without a real tearing between his loyalty to the Agency we’ve watched him help build and his love (?) for his family, the film’s ending feels forced. The rest of the movie doesn’t, though.
Metacritic score of 62 probably reflects high expectations, which are not quite met. I’d wait for the DVD, though it’s worth seeing.