If we're to take this movie at its word, the CIA was founded by a bunch of boring WASPs in suits. I'm not going to argue with the WASPs in suits aspect, but why, oh why, must they be so bland? There is so much internal turmoil in The Good Shepherd it's amazing its central character manages to get anything done. There's a lot of story here, as Eric Roth's screenplay follows the birth of the CIA from its origins as the OSS during World War II to the Bay of Pigs debacle, but Robert De Niro's sophomore directorial effort is so subdued that in the end it feels like nothing of significance has happened. The movie obviously wants to say a lot—the conflict of career and family, the question of whether or not the secrecy and deceitful nature of the Central Intelligence Agency has become "the heart and soul" of America, as one character puts it. Roth's screenplay, though, is too concerned with plot, and De Niro is too focused on silent agony. The combination is an unfortunate one—one that underplays the intrigue of the supposed history lesson and overplays a lot of subtext with questionable relevance to the main thrust of the story.

The movie starts off on April 16, 1961—one day before the Bay of Pigs invasion. Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) boards a bus on his way to work, just as he does every day. The invasion happens the next day, turns into the debacle history has deemed it to be, and the next day, Wilson's former FBI contact Sam Murach (Alec Baldwin) tells him the President is already looking to break down the CIA. Wilson also receives a mysterious photograph and audio tape under his door at night, and the next day, the CIA's technicians are working to decipher the clues. The story cuts between the CIA's cleanup efforts with the help of the evidence presented to Wilson and Wilson's rise in the intelligence community, starting with his induction into the Skull and Bones at Yale in 1939. He starts a serious relationship with a deaf fellow student named Laura (Tammy Blanchard), and after learning from Murach that his poetry teacher Dr. Fredericks (Michael Gambon) is involved with a Nazi group, he begins his life of spying. Things become complicated when he meets Clover (Angelina Jolie), with whom he betrays Laura, and Bill Sullivan (Robert De Niro), who wants him to help the cause in Europe.

The espionage in Europe and Wilson learning the finer elements of intelligence from Dr. Fredericks, who turns out to be British intelligence, makes the central character a harder version of himself and starts his slow descent into minor paranoia. There's also details of his past brought to light involving his father (Timothy Hutton), who killed himself after his loyalty to the country was questioned, but these are just background for what turns into the movie's focal point: the clash of Wilson's shaky home life and his career.