Syriana
Written and directed by Stephen Gaghan
Warner Bros.
2005
Rating:


The advertisements for "Syriana" — in which Tim Blake Nelson's oil executive character gives a "Wall Street"-like speech about the safety and warming properties of corruption — make the film seem like it, at best, exists in an echo chamber, offering ideas that will rally the liberal choir while being too leftist to covert the minds of conservatives.

"Syriana" turns out to be something far worse: it has no real ideas at all.

Writer-director Stephen Gaghan, an Oscar-winner for his script for the similar and far superior "Traffic," has crafted a complicated and well-researched movie that's alarmingly devoid of coherence and, more destructively, people.

Make no mistake. "Syriana" is over-stuffed with characters. The only worthwhile subplot features Bob Barnes (George Clooney), a CIA agent who belatedly discovers the corruption of his company while dealing with a son who hates him. Then there's Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright), an attorney researching the legality of a corrupt oil company merger while dealing with an alcoholic father (William Charles Mitchell) who hates him. There's Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon), a mildly corrupt energy consultant to Middle Eastern Prince Nasir Al-Subaai (Alexander Siddig) who's dealing with the death of his young son and a wife (Amanda Peet) who hates him for capitalizing on the tragedy. And, in a barely related subplot that wishes it was half as profound as the 1999 Indian film "The Terrorist," a Pakistani immigrant worker (Mazhar Munir) becomes a terrorist when the oil merger causes him to lose his job.

Yes, there are many characters in "Syriana," but no people. Unfolding with the depth of an ADD-addled "Anderson Cooper 360" special report, "Syriana" bounces from subplot to subplot with little concern for whether the audience can follow along or even care about what's happening. For the first hour, scenes barely last more than a minute and rarely contain anything more substantial than a depiction of a mundane occurrence or a random factoid of dubious veracity.

Seldom has a film so anxious to engage the moviegoing public in political debate so actively discouraged audience participation.

Posted Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/film/syriana