One of my favorite movies of 2006 was The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert De Niro. (De Niro's other directorial effort, A Bronx Tale, is also great.) It chronicles the birth of the CIA from the perspective of a guy named Edward Wilson (Matt Damon), who must track down the source of a leak within the government. It sounds like an espionage thriller, which it is, but it's also a great character study. Edward Wilson is a fascinating person, valuing moral integrity above all but increasingly finding that he cannot trust anyone around him. Unusually for matters of state, the story is shaped as much by his particular compulsions and troubled personal life as any external forces.