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There’s an inherent sense of worthiness to The Good Shepherd, Robert De Niro’s latest directorial effort. You can tell this by the subject matter: a fictionalised account of the forming of the Central Intelligence Agency. You can tell this by the quality of the cast: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Billy Crudup, Michael Gambon, William Hurt, Joe Pesci to name but a few. And you can tell this by the running time: a buttock-numbing 167 minutes.

To be fair, the time while not exactly skipping by doesn’t particularly drag either, although De Niro doesn’t do himself any favours by focusing the story on Edward Wilson (Damon), a spy whose counter-intelligence skills boil down to administrative genius and an unerring devotion to his country, at the expense of his family life. The need to push pens and subtly undermine foreign governments costs Edward his relationship with his wife Margaret (Jolie) and his young son, Edward Jr., but he feels it’s a price worth paying. Besides, by protecting the country, he keeps them safe too.

As the film charts the development of the CIA, Edward finds himself drawn deeper into certain situations, unable to trust anyone and, with the Bay of Pigs debacle on his hands thanks to a mole, the possible end of his career. As he tries to salvage the situation, he finds himself in a true Hobson’s choice scenario, when he must finally choose between family and country.

It’s a long build-up to the admittedly impressive ending and The Good Shepherd provides an interesting view of the politics of the 1940s onwards. But it is a little dry and does rely heavily on the audience knowing the intricacies of key moments in US political history. Also, despite the handy on-screen dates to help you keep track as the tale unfolds in flashback, there are moments when De Niro’s apparent reluctance to cover his leads with prosthetics and wigs means that Edward never appears to age, which comes as quite a shock when he’s suddenly meeting his son – about six-years old in the last scene – who’s now 20-something and at Yale.