Customer Reviews
Loss of interest - By: Mrs. Elaine Marriott, 09 May 2008 
We settled down for an evening of entertainment - what a disappointment! The film failed to "hook" us & so after 45 minutes gave up & went to bed.
The Good Shepherd - By: L. Rodwell, 28 Mar 2008 Boring, boring, boring !
I have a lot of patience, but this film reallly tested it.
It went on for ever, & I kept hoping that something would happen & it would get moving. It never did, it was as dull as dishwater, from the beginning to the end. Ok acting, but just absolutely no plot whatsoever, & it is VERY long. By the end of it, I was about ready to kill myself, & felt angry that it had wasted so many hours of my time.
Those people who wrote positive reviews for this MUST be on the payroll, because this was one severely bad film.
If your sanity matters to you, avoid it like the plague.
Thoughtful, complex drama. - By: CallyK, 20 Mar 2008 
It is banal to say that 'the characters do not develop' Anyone who can say something like this about this thoughtful, intelligent film has clearly failed to grasp its essence. I found it intriguing, densely plotted & a complex insight into a character who ultimately finds himself isolated by the moral choices he has made. It offers a perceptive insight into what happens to the personality when an individual is obliged, through the obligations of a life founded upon secrecy & deceit, to be inauthentic & to lie in his personal life. And while the character may have made these choices for what he believed to be laudable moral reasons, he nonetheless finds himself at the end of the film caught in a terrible personal dilemma. I thought it was an extremely clever film, a deep & complicated depiction of a traumatised childhood & how this might compromise a person's psychological development. If you like films that make you think, then this is definitely one to watch. It bears repeated viewing to fully understand the complexities of plot & character & the careful & sensitive photography.
The Dull Shepherd - By: Eve, 17 Mar 2008 
Wow. This was dull. Now don't get me wrong I was not expecting some James Bond alll guns blazing action, I don't especiallly like those films but this was dull with a capital D.
Some reviewers may see Matt Damon's performance as understated. I saw it as ranging from looking blank to confused, frowning then back to blank. Jolie & Damon were supposed to have aged some twenty years. Damon didn't age at alll, Jolie looked a bit tired by the end of it, I felt as aged as she looked. The story? Well it meanders along, Bay of Pigs, blah, blah, myth of power, corruption of self by duty etc.
About an hour in to it I thought the plot had picked up only to be submitted to more of the same blankness for what felt like an eternity. I only carried on watching out of a sense of duty (maybe that was the point!) & the fact I felt obliged to after paying the rental for it.
If you want interesting political scandal watch All The Presidents Men.
how can such an exciting topic be so dull? - By: londonhoya, 04 Mar 2008 Very disappointing - capable actors, constrained by a plot that moved but revealed no development of characters.
