User reviews

"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.

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 is a straightforward retelling of the Ames saga that seldom rises above the level of a made-for-TV movie and contains a major anachronism in that the fall of the Soviet Union is shown as having come during the Clinton administration rather than the Bush administration. Timothy Hutton is seriously miscast as Ames--he's too young for the part by at least 15 years. Under the glasses and mustache that give him a superficial resemblance to Ames, his face is too fresh for a burned-out career civil servant in late middle age. Hutton was much more believable as the idealistic traitor Christopher Boyce in "The Falcon and the Snowman," a similar themed but much better film. But Elizabeth Pena is excellent as Ames' South American wife Rosario in a part that is terribly underwritten, and Joan Plowright is superb as the elderly spycatcher Jeanne Vertefeuil. Although entertaining, this is a movie that could have been much better if it had a more polished script and a bigger budget.

I love spy flicks and this time we have Hutton revisiting a similar role to his character in Falcon and the Snowman although he's in a vehicle that doens't treat us to the action and intrigue that Falcon had. This one is more of a meat and potatoes offering. This movie is based on the real Aldrich Ames, who was the CIA operative who sold secrets to the Russians as the Cold War was winding down in the late 80s. Hutton does well as Ames as we see the character become disillusioned not with the idea of democracy, but with how the system operates. Ames does not quite fit in with the ex-frat boys he is working with but takes his lumps as he is passed over in being promoted. Obviously more intelligent than most of his cohorts, he becomes dismayed at how his ideas are put aside to make room for decisions based on policy rather than policy based on information gathered from intelligence operations. The movie glosses over parts of the story and details that might have made it more suspenseful. Hutton might be a bit young to for the role of a burnt-out career government worker, but it doesn't detract that much from the story. Pena also does well as his Columbian wife but her role is somewhat diminished by lack of screen time. And there is a little old lady who plays a consultant to the CIA that is given the task of figuring out who the spy is. She and her crack team of old hens suprised me with their no-nonsense, dogged determination to get to the bottom of the thing. As far as spy movies go, this one is ok. I liked it, but it lacked depth of classic spy flicks. Others that I recommend would be Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Falcon/Snowman as mentioned above, and No Way Out.

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.

I like a good spy from time to time and since I kinda liked THE FALCON AND THE SNOWMAN I knew that one day or another I should have watched ALDRICH AMES TRAITOR WITHIN. Well, last June I finally saw it but it wasn't on the level of that other movie.

Aldrich Ames (Timothy Hutton) is a CIA operative that has problems at work because of his alcoholism and trouble in being awake, and in fact he is far from receiving a promotion. But he is also smarter than his cohorts and becomes dismayed when his ideas are put aside to make room for decisions based on policy. As Ames has to sell secrets to the Russians in the waning days of Cold War, the CIA and the FBI in 1993 investigate on Ames through electronic surveillance for tracking his movements, up until he was found, arrested and forced to serve a life sentence (and the real Ames is still serving it to this day).

Hutton, Joan Plowright and Elizabeth Pena did their best with the average material given. But what ruined the movie for me was that despite it's based on a true story in some points the lead's actions surpassed credibility and in some points it was hard to follow. If there was some action and the characters were more involving, I probably would have liked it more.

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.

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.

...they got the date he was arrested right. If you really want to find out factual information on this subject, try searching for press releases. This would have made a good story if it were fiction...but unfortunately they didn't bother to do any research (officials at the Russian embassy DO NOT have secure lines into CIA headquarters). This movie isn't worth anyone's time.