"Syriana" not so smart (Another Clooney FLOP)

Lumino Magazine ^ | 1/06 | Jordan Greenberg

[pissant]

Syriana” is a mess of characters and ideas, a vague picture of undefined ideologies, and a poor excuse for a “more-truth-than-fiction” exposé on the long reach of the oil business.

Only an audience’s fear of being made to feel foolish could possibly garner this film either acceptance or praise. Evidently the same goes for critics as a slew of reviews have come out in favor of the movie, which is one of the worst of the year.

This is the sophomore directing effort of screenwriter Stephen Gaghan who received praise for penning 2000’s critical favorite “Traffic”. Unique in that the film follows multiple sets of characters with rarely overlapping story lines, “Syriana” (and “Traffic” before it) has the power to show an issue from many different sides. This type of multi-perspective narration is used to ill-effect here, merely producing non-sequitors and promoting the highly redundant message of abounding evil.

In Steven Soderbergh’s hands, “Traffic” was an entertaining success, in Gaghan’s (whose only previous directing experience was with 2002’s critical and commercial flop “Abandon”) “Syriana” manages to say nothing of consequence.

The inexperienced director brutalized his cast, reducing the supposed undiscovered genius of Hollywood, Jeffrey Wright, to the equivalent of “The Tree” in the 5th grade play, the genuinely talented Matt Damon to a weightless sheep, and George Clooney to a confused clown.

There is nothing coherent in “Syriana”. It deserves no special allowance because it wants to be liked or because it should have been the waving standard for the Los Angeles left. The film is a hypnotic charlatan, indescribably sleepy and full of hot air.

A major disappointment, “Syriana” makes us doubt the reliability of a good trailer and it makes us doubt in Hollywood as a whole. If the American film industry believes it can keep feeding us confusing or contrived stories wrapped in high quality film or in big names they will continue to bite their nails over declining numbers at the box office. Forget all about piracy and first make a film you would be proud to have somebody want to steal from you. Be inspired and be diligent, this wasn’t enough.

[BradyLS]

I saw the movie and actually enjoyed it, though you have to suspend your disbelief in the last reel to do so.

More to the point, the film is a two hour collection of "moments" (snippets of punchline dialogue and brief action) where film's various threads begin on the periphery of the plot and spiral in towards the center. But all you get are points along the thread. Nothing supports or explains the them. Basically, viewers have supply their own rationales for the jumps and breaks in the story and I think that's a lot for a paying audience to accept. And, unfortunatley, it's the usual "America is greedy, pig-headed, ditzy, and wrong", but at least the other players don't come off as really any better.

It's a bummer of a film, but flashy and even captivating, as long as you don;t take it too seriously.