Went to see Roger Donaldson's The Recruit earlier tonight, a CIA thriller starring self-styled Hollywood bad lad Colin Farrell and everybody's favourite grumpy old fella Al Pacino.

Farrell plays a cocky computer geek by day and bartender by night who gets headhunted by Pacino's character to join the CIA's training programme. Farrell's not sure he's the CIA type but gets lured by Pacino's oblique references to his father, and hopes to learn the real truth behind his dad's mysterious death in 1990. The training by and large goes well, aside from the fact every time his eyes are clapped on fellow recruit Layla (a watchable performance from Bridget Moynihan who could find herself as busy as Farrell after this) she knocks him off his feet and his brain heads towards his pants.

Things start looking ominous when Pacino advises Farrell that Layla is a mole and gives him his first assignment to get up close and personal to her to find out to whom she's passing sensitive data about a computer-freezing program. Given that the two maxims Pacino's character regularly reinforces is 'trust no-one' and 'nothing is what it seems' Farrell soon finds he's out on his own as the plot twists one way then the other before reaching a tense climax.

As there's nothing particularly new about the set-up it requires some high-wattage starpower to keep it compelling. Luckily, Farrell provides this with charisma to spare, his combination of swagger and vulnerability pulling you in to root for the character from the opening scenes in. He more than holds his own against another voluble if entertaining turn from Pacino and should now forge a long career ahead in Hollywood leaving his brief stint in Ballykissangel a distant memory.

In summary, The Recruit is a well-made thriller which is intelligent without being clever-clever or pretentious, and should therefore entertain a broad audience. You can consider that a recommendation.