Any movie casting Angelina Jolie as the neglected housewife loses some credibility in my book. All joking aside, The Good Shepherd is a serious take on a serious subject -- the formation of the CIA as a secret society that rose to a position of high power, and the void of morality inherent within it. However, the film lacks pull, so much so that its punches to the gut in the third act feel like jabs, primarily because the protagonist, Edward Wilson (Matt Damon), is envisioned as both lacking in the control of his own fate and rather dispassionate in self-conduct.

The frustrating thing here is that this kind of character is necessary for the thesis of the movie to work -- that this quiet, intelligent, and paranoid well-bred WASP is exactly the perfect recruit to become part of the U.S. counter-intelligence machine; he accepts what he's given and deals with situations calmly, and his demographic background is approvable by the controlling privileged. Hence, the movie adopts his personality -- detached, observant, unwilling to display emotion. When Edward loses bits of his humanity, he deals with it by showing as little emotion as possible, and the movie poker-faces right along with him.

If The Good Shepherd is anything, it's a model of consistency -- it's able to maintain this unvarying tone for a runtime of 2 hours and 45 minutes, with Damon (who curiously looks the same even as he ages 20 years within the story) continuing to give his expressionless stare to every character that flits in and out of the picture.

The movie remains only academically involving although it sometimes reaches for horrifying, and certainly one of the bigger horrors it wants to express is that such a powerful office of the U.S. government exists at the expense of its members' souls, but it's a bit tough to lament for a lost soul we aren't allowed much of a connection to in the first place.

(Released by Universal Pictures and rated "R" for some violence, sexuality and language.)

Review also posted at www.windowtothemovies.com.