The movie, briskly directed by Kenneth Branagh, begins with Chris Pine's Ryan as a college student – and before the credits have even begun, he's seen 9/11, joined the Marines, been shot down in Afghanistan, met the love of his life at the hospital, and been recruited by the CIA.
You see what I meant by "briskly"?
Soon Ryan's working undercover on Wall Street, looking for secret terrorist bank accounts -- when he notices some financial irregularities in Russia. So now it's off to Moscow, where the games of cat and mouse quickly begin, and soon involve not just bonds, but bombs.
Branagh shows up as the bad guy, too, a Russian mobster-millionaire out to wreck the American economy, and he has just the right amount of fun with the part, and the accent. (Even more convincing – not surprisingly – is Mikhail Baryshnikov as an icy Kremlin official.)
And while Pine isn't much more than brash and energetic as Ryan, adding some grey hair and gravitas to the American side is Kevin Costner, very good as the military man who brings the younger man into the CIA, turns him into a weapon and then aims him at the target.
Not that the movie doesn't make some missteps. For example there's a scene where Knightley, who thinks her husband is having an affair, is relieved to find out he's actually only been off killing Russian agents; this might work played as very black comedy, but it's done too straight here.
And – by Clancy standards, even by Fleming standards – the central plot idea is a little xenophobic, at best, with nasty Russian nationalists out to wreck the U.S. economy. (What, the filmmakers think Americans can't screw up capitalism all by themselves?)
But the blue-eyed Pine is cheerfully courageous ("like a Boy Scout on a field trip," Costner mock-grumbles), the (occasionally real) Russian locations are colorful, and the whole thing concludes with a well-staged race against the inevitable ticking clock.
Yeah, so it's not quite Bond, James Bond. But it's Ryan, Jack Ryan – a promising start to a probable new franchise, and an early bright spot on the late winter film calendar.
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JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT
Grade: B+
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 105 minutes
Playing at: Multiple locations; opens Friday, Jan. 17
Cast and crew: Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Keira Knightley; directed by Kenneth Branagh.
The lowdown: A surprisingly economical spy thriller, with Chris Pine playing a younger, rebooted version of Tom Clancy's hero Jack Ryan, here on his first mission (to Moscow, no less). Complete with hand-to-hand combat and cat-and-mouse conversations, it feels a bit James-Bondish – which isn't a bad thing – and Kenneth Branagh (who also directs) makes for a fine villain.
