Syriana
Traffic screenwriter Stephen Gaghanâs directorial debut turns out to be a slow, horribly paced, extended diatribe against capitalism, American Neo-conservatives, and big oil corporations (which even left-wing pariah Bill OâReilly has taken a stand against in recent years) in general. I shouldnât have been surprised to see Steven Soderberghâs name listed as a producer, as he has a long known history of taking canât-miss concepts (The Limey, The Ocean Movies) and turning them into boring, unwatchable garbage. As the CIA agent who suffers a crisis of conscience and tries to redeem himself, George Clooney ostensibly gives the best performance in the film, which is decent at best, though now itâs painfully clear his Oscar win here was more of an acknowledgement of his overwhelming popularity in Hollywood rather than based on his being the best of the five nominated performances (especially over Matt Dillon in Crash). As the energy analyst who is hired to be a financial advisor to an Arab prince after winning sympathy points for his sonâs accidental death during the Emirâs party, Matt Damonâs character tries to have it both ways: In essence, he is helping the âgood guysâ of the film, yet we have it beaten over our heads that he has âsold outâ by essentially profiting off the death of his boy (note to mention he is saddled with a weirdo wife and odd lifestyle; we know that theyâre good people because for breakfast they eat bacon made from soy beans). Jeffrey Wright as the lawyer trying to find corruption and a scapegoat within a big oil company is saddled with an unnecessary subplot about the conflict between him and his father, but his portion of the plot seems to go nowhere. The rest of the cast is peppered with plenty of good actors, including Christopher Plummer, Chris Cooper, Robert Foxworth, Jamey Sheridan, and William Hurt, but all of them make little to no impact. Whatâs especially laughable is how the âgoodâ Arab prince is painted as a progressive type who wants democracy and womenâs rights in his country (something our soldiers fought and died for in Iran and Afghanistan) yet is shunned by the U.S. interests in favor of his (apparently) incompetent younger brother (probably because the only one he reveals his noble intentions to is Damon). While the plot drifts from one storyline to another, doing little to tie everything together, the overriding theme seems to simplistically be that American interests in the Middle East are responsible for ALL the problems and turmoil over there, as illustrated in the story of a young Arab man who falls in with Islamic extremists who groom (i.e. brainwash) him to become a suicide bomber, and the elegant piano score that plays as he âheroicallyâ carries out his final mission should be enough to horrify and offend any decent viewer who lived through the horrors of 9/11. Overall, a long, boring political manifesto, which despite having a running time of a little over two hours, feels more to this viewer like three and a halfâŚ
4/10