Film Review
Syriana
Dir. Stephen GaghanScr. Stephen Gaghan
George Clooney
Matt Damon
Amanda Peet
Chris Cooper
William Hurt
Official Site - syrianamovie.warnerbros.com
This film demands your attention. The tagline to the movie is, Everything is connected. To make those connections you need to have your wits about you. That is not to detract from the richness of the experience. Syriana is definitely one of the smartest and most interesting films to come down the pike in a long while. Written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for his Traffic screenplay, unfolds a drama about big business, oil, politics and government shenanigans.
We flit from scene to scene with no real explanation of how the events before our eyes are related to each other. You find yourself being led into a room where a conversation is already in motion and are taken out of the room before it is over. This happens so much at the beginning of the film that it almost lost me, but I sat up and paid more attention and before I was done was so engrossed in the story I wasn't ready for it to be over.
Clooney is great, complicated, as are most of the characters in the story, all of them forced to explore the limits of their moral universes by the situations that unfold before them. There is a subtext about the relationships between fathers and sons, which seems unnecessary at the time, but actually humanizes all the characters; everyone involved is either someones father or son. Because the film takes place today, it's themes of backroom political maneuvering, terrorism and covert operations, take on a sense of urgency and are quite unsettling.
To be honest, if 10% of what happens onscreen is real, we should all be much more concerned than we really are, and I get the feeling that 10% legitimacy would be a low-ball number. Syriana, go see it, then buy a Prius and protest the war.
I just accidentally pulled the toenail off of my little toe and it reminded me that I haven't posted a review of Syriana yet.
I admit I am a fan of George Clooney. I just like to watch him onscreen no matter what character he is playing. This time around he is part of a very talented ensemble cast including: Jeffery Wright, Matt Damon, Amanda Peet and Christopher Plummer.
The movie weaves a very complex web of corporate corruption, American CIA operatives and the energy crisis facing the world. Locations jump from the Middle East to Switzerland and the US. The plot takes a while to come together but the story is relevant and engaging. I have a suspicion that it is closer to the way things actually happen than most of us would like to accept. Executives piss all over the laws that are meant to reign in their greed and the US government betrays it's own people in a drop of a hat.
Matt Damon's character gets to offer the harshest and most honest lines but it is Clooney that attracts your sympathies. He is a CIA operative that gets caught between the truth and the way things need to appear. There is a torture scene (involving fingernails) that reminded me of Quentin Tarantino. I think anyone with a healthy dose of courage and a strong stomach would enjoy this film.
I heard that Clooney was a producer on this film. That proves he has a talent for seeing when a story is worth telling. Five out of five stars in my book!
We flit from scene to scene with no real explanation of how the events before our eyes are related to each other. You find yourself being led into a room where a conversation is already in motion and are taken out of the room before it is over. This happens so much at the beginning of the film that it almost lost me, but I sat up and paid more attention and before I was done was so engrossed in the story I wasn't ready for it to be over.
Clooney is great, complicated, as are most of the characters in the story, all of them forced to explore the limits of their moral universes by the situations that unfold before them. There is a subtext about the relationships between fathers and sons, which seems unnecessary at the time, but actually humanizes all the characters; everyone involved is either someones father or son. Because the film takes place today, it's themes of backroom political maneuvering, terrorism and covert operations, take on a sense of urgency and are quite unsettling.
To be honest, if 10% of what happens onscreen is real, we should all be much more concerned than we really are, and I get the feeling that 10% legitimacy would be a low-ball number. Syriana, go see it, then buy a Prius and protest the war.
I just accidentally pulled the toenail off of my little toe and it reminded me that I haven't posted a review of Syriana yet.
I admit I am a fan of George Clooney. I just like to watch him onscreen no matter what character he is playing. This time around he is part of a very talented ensemble cast including: Jeffery Wright, Matt Damon, Amanda Peet and Christopher Plummer.
The movie weaves a very complex web of corporate corruption, American CIA operatives and the energy crisis facing the world. Locations jump from the Middle East to Switzerland and the US. The plot takes a while to come together but the story is relevant and engaging. I have a suspicion that it is closer to the way things actually happen than most of us would like to accept. Executives piss all over the laws that are meant to reign in their greed and the US government betrays it's own people in a drop of a hat.
Matt Damon's character gets to offer the harshest and most honest lines but it is Clooney that attracts your sympathies. He is a CIA operative that gets caught between the truth and the way things need to appear. There is a torture scene (involving fingernails) that reminded me of Quentin Tarantino. I think anyone with a healthy dose of courage and a strong stomach would enjoy this film.
I heard that Clooney was a producer on this film. That proves he has a talent for seeing when a story is worth telling. Five out of five stars in my book!