CONTRIVANCES UNDO CIA SPY THRILLER.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

THERE IS a fascinating movie to be made about what it takes to become a CIA agent these days. Until they make that movie, though, we're stuck with ``The Recruit.''

Repeatedly rewritten to within an inch of its life and showing it, this latest governmental thriller from the hit-and-miss director Roger Donaldson (``No Way Out,'' ``Thirteen Days'' on the plus side; ``White Sands'' and ``Marie'' in the minus column) starts out engagingly cagey. But by midpoint, its endless deployment of fake-outs, deceptions and unbelievable head trips grows wearying - and we're only halfway done with that stuff.

Good performances, however, keep the film watchable for much longer than it deserves to be. Hunk of the moment Colin Farrell finds the emotional truth in the most contrived situations as James Clayton, MIT computer whiz - and hipster bartender! (Did we mention that Donaldson also directed the ludicrous ``Cocktail''?)

Sneaky agency recruiter Walter Burke (Al Pacino at his menacingly ingratiating semi-best) approaches Clayton with a job offer. Burke drops hints that he'd known the young man's father, an oil company executive who had died mysteriously in a South American plane crash. Surrogate filial bond established, Burke whisks Clayton off to The Farm, the CIA's secret training facility, where the veteran also becomes the freshman class's main instructor and chief mind-tamperer.

Here Clayton meets the lovely Layla Moore (Bridget Moynahan), and as a result the film begins to jump its rails. He makes a pass, she puts him down. One night, Burke orders some of the boys to pick up ladies at a bar; Clayton is distracted by Layla and humiliated. The next day, he gets back at her during a lie detection exercise. True love - or at least movie true love - doesn't start any cuter than this.

Anyway, after a series of increasingly fantastic scenarios that no government organization could ever get away with subjecting recruits to, our aspirants enter the real world - or at least the CIA equivalent, its Langley, Va., headquarters. That's when Burke assigns Clayton to actually spy on Layla, who's suspected of being a terrorist mole. Of course, by now, the two kids are admittedly and deeply in love, which kind of complicates the mission.

And so forth and so on. Burke barks ``everything is a test'' so many times that, well, it becomes impossible to take anything that happens in the movie seriously. So the best way to stay entertained by ``The Recruit'' lies in trying to guess how many levels of duplicity Pacino is working at any given moment - and wondering how a relative newbie like Irishman Farrell will manage to hold his side of the screen against the crafty old pro. A realistic movie about the CIA would have been more interesting, but at least that's something.

THE RECRUIT - Two and one half stars

(Rated PG-13: violence, language, sex)

Starring: Al Pacino, Colin Farrell, Bridget Moynahan.

Director: Roger Donaldson.

Running time: 1 hr. 45 min.

Playing: Citywide.

In a nutshell: Potentially interesting study of CIA training procedures gets compromised by overplotting and silly, distracting Hollywood romance and suspense cliches.

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Al Pacino plays a CIA instructor who brings potential field operatives under his wing in ``The Recruit.''