Grade: B+

Robert DeNiro directs and has a cameo role in The Good Shepherd, based on a true story.  Matt Damon stars as Edward Wilson, one of the founders of the CIA.  Matt Damon has played the strong, intelligent, quiet type before, but never quite this intensely.  His character arc takes him from a fresh-faced fraternity boy to a cool, cunning international operative.  Somewhere in between he gets swept up and married off to his buddy’s sister, Clover, the seductive Angelina Jolie.  They have a child, Edward Jr., who grows up with a long distance dad. Lots of drama, great performances, solid story.