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Entertainment
Spy Game
Brad Pitt in "Spy Game"... action and wit go hand in hand.
IT IS intelligent action — a heady mix of brain and brawn. It has charismatic actors Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. The exotic places in China, Vietnam, Berlin and Beirut transport you to the mood of the 1970s and 1980s. Every step promises challenge, every move reminds you of a chess game. Yet enigmatically ``Spy Game'' is not an edge-of-the-seat action thriller.
The story, written by Michael Frost Beckner, is set in 1991. It is CIA officer Nathan Muir's (Robert Redford) last day in office. It is on this day that he gets to know that his one-time protégé, Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt), detained in a foreign prison, is scheduled to be killed in 24 hours, for espionage. CIA washes its hands of him as a saving operation could be too great a risk. But Nathan is unwilling to give up — and in the next few hours in office, the mentor plays an intriguing cat and mouse game with his own department to save Bishop. Here Nathan is not fighting mere villains — he is pitting himself against officials as astute as he. Catherine McCormack as the aid worker and Bishop's lover Elizabeth Hadley, who threatens the friendship between Nathan and Bishop, does a neat job.
Harry-Gregson Williams's background score is another of ``Spy Game's'' assets. The music brings out an earthiness and nativity each time the action shifts from China to the CIA and to Germany and Vietnam.
The film, directed by Tony Scott, spans a decade and a half and much of the scenes are in flashback. The cuts are quick and oscillations between the past and present are swift — too swift at times.
This Universal Pictures' Film brings together two formidable screen personalities once again to present an action filled entertainer.
MALATHI RANGARAJAN
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