"Intelligence" involves what happens when a Vancouver dope smuggler, Jimmy Reardon (played by Ian Tracey in his first leading role in years), gets his hands on the files of informants for the local Organized Crime Unit. The OCU's chief, Mary Spalding (played by Klea Scott), is being headhunted by CSIS. She is anxious to recruit Reardon as a high-level informant while also wanting the files back with no harm done to any of the informants. But her scuzzy second in command, Ted Altman (played by Matt Frewer), is equally anxious to bring her down and save his own job after losing said files to a car thief. His underhanded methods lead to ugly things even as Reardon and Spalding forge a tentative alliance.
While it's no secret that this is a potential TV-movie pilot for CBC, the final product is a full-fledged feature film that makes recent British and American cinema thriller offerings look pathetic. The usual subtle Canadian acting and cynical writing pair up nicely with better-than-usual production values. Vancouver, as itself and not some other city, looks great.
Since this comes from Haddock Entertainment, a huge number of actors and actresses from Da Vinci's Inquest show up. My favorite was a cameo by Alex Diakun as one of Reardon's employees. Matt Frewer struggles a bit with his role, though, since Altman is unfortunately the weak link in the chain, one of Haddock's now just about patented paper-thin bad guys with no realistic motivation. This makes the cliff-hangerish ending more annoying than necessary.
Ian Tracey and Klea Scott, however, both finally get the roles that they deserve as leads and not back-ups to pretty people who can't act. Reardon and Spalding have a fascinating, almost Renaissance Italian, relationship--two great magnates who are inherently good, but are trapped in a dark world that worships ruthlessness. Both of them have underlings who constantly urge them to commit cold and vicious acts, just to show that they aren't "soft". Yet, it's the tough refusal of each one to sink to that lowest moral level that establishes an immediate common ground between them as soon as they meet.
I sincerely hope that the film's makers get their funding for a series, because there is a great deal here to explore. As the Canadians like to say, "It's all good."
