Aldrich Ames: Traitor Within

Fascinating to see Timothy Hutton nearly disappear into this role, using subtleties to create the alcoholic, intellectual persona inside whose head there is a lot of action we don't otherwise see. A thoughtful movie. The meetings held in cocktail lounge/restaurants were interesting.

Aldrich Ames is the CIA Chief of Soviet Counter-Intelligence for a long time, without having any promotion. His Colombian wife Rosario Ames (Elizabeth Peña) is a very greed woman, pressing him for a better life and status. Full of debts, and with low self-esteem, he decides to look for the Soviet Ambassador and offers a list of double agents to him per US$ 50,000.00. The money comes easily and Aldrich does not stop anymore, delivering many American secrets to Soviet Union along eight years. The experienced agent Jeanne Vertefeuille (Joan Plowright) comes to CIA Headquarters to conduct an investigation of the leak of information. With the collapse of the communist system, Aldrich becomes desperate and commits a final serious mistake. This movie-for-cable-TV is very above the average. The story hooks the attention of the viewer, as well as the performance of Timothy Hutton, Elizabeth Peña and Joan Plowright. The screenplay focuses mostly in the family, the financial problem and the lack of perspective in the career of Aldrich Ames, and the viewer may end the movie with some sympathy for him. Maybe this is the flaw in the plot, since the guy indeed was a disgusting traitor of his country for money. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): `Perfil de Um Espião' (`Profile of a Spy')

This movie follows the story of Aldrich Ames, the most dangerous spy in the history of the CIA. It stars Timothy Hutton, who also played a spy in The Falcon and the Snowman. It was very interesting to see how he fell into the life of a spy and how he was able to avoid detection for some 8 years. It was also interesting to see how the CIA works from the inside, assuming that this movie is somewhat accurate in its depection. Overall, I would recommend this movie especially if you are someone who likes spy movies or movies about government ineptitude.

"Aldrich Ames: Traitor Within" tells the tale of the CIA's most infamous mole who was arrested in 1994 after causing inestimable damage to national security. An obvious small screen product (Showtime), the film does a good job of showing the pressures on Ames; how he rationalized his misdeeds; and how justice finally caught up with him. Sans super spy techo-nonsense, this film portrays people as people; imperfect and human. A solid docudrama for anyone interested in spy stuff.

Watching this movie was like reading the Wikipedia information on Ames. The movie is dry and schematic, without the characters development and no artistic details. It is done in a primitive and even amateurish manner. Having such a great factual materials, its creators produced a boring flop.