Syriana Review

December 8, 2005 3:11 PM
by [email]

When I saw “Syriana,” I was preparing for the GRE (hence the below analogy), my numbed brain was taking in the second screening of the night, and the expired energy bar I’d had for dinner and was making me feel rather ill (word to the wise- don’t eat food on sale at GNC).

Subsequent confusion could have been due to any of the above reasons, but my gut feeling- that writer/director Stephen Gaghan simply had too many characters to fully develop- is, I imagine, going to remain when I see the film again.

With its sprawling cast, international locales, and intricate plot, “Syriana” is essentially to oil what “Traffic” was to drugs. Only this time, Gaghan has ambitiously cut screen time (to just over two hours), multiplied his principle players, and stretched the geographic reach from bone-dry Texas to stunningly photographed Iran.

George Clooney, almost unrecognizable thanks to 35 back-wrecking pounds and an unruly beard, plays Bob Barnes, a CIA operative whose glory days (and presumable fitness) are assets of the past.
He’s got a wife, who doesn’t appear once, and a teenaged son, played in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him bit by rising actor Max Minghella (“Bee Season”).

Beyond the focus on the middle east, “Syriana” follows parallel father/son stories- Jeffrey Wright’s morally compromised Georgetown lawyer has an alcoholic father, Alexander Siddig’s idealistic Iranian prince is at the mercy of the departing dictator, and the energy analyst played by Matt Damon loses his six-year-old to accidental electrocution.

When Damon- unhappily if not unwittingly- uses the boy’s death as the basis for potential profit, the rift between him and his wife (Amanda Peet) is depicted in one terrific fountain-side scene. Here, and in several Clooney sequences, the movie is its most emotionally engaging.

But “Syriana” has so much else to cover: a teenaged Pakistani oil driller (Mazhar Munir) who falls under the persuasive spell of an Egyptian recruiting suicide bombers, a Texas CEO (Chris Cooper), and a mogul (Christopher Plummer, more ominous than in “A Beautiful Mind”). Each subplot could be a separate, stellar, film.

The movie’s wavering moral center is really comprised of Damon’s devastated analyst, Siddig’s reform-minded prince, and Clooney’s bombastic operative, who, in the gristly third act, is abandoned by his U.S. handlers (effectively played by Tony nominated actress Jayne Atkinson and “The Station Agent”’s writer/director, Tom McCarthy).

Atkinson and McCarthy are two examples of Gaghan’s primary shortcoming- namely, asking actors to define characters with very little screen time. The cast - which includes William Hurt and Tim Blake Nelson - does their best, but many characters come off as thinly drawn and/or superfluous.

As the heir intent on reforms, Siddig deserves special mention. His storyline, which includes a stalwart father and a brother bent on maintaining Iran’s age-old sexism and oil domination, has striking similarities to the beautifully played subplot featuring Munir’s confused teen. These characters are at opposite ends of the economic spectrum, but they’re both struggling uselessly against a system that won’t change.

Wright, who was a standout in the high-profile cast of “Angels in America,” succeeds in finding humanity in his underwritten, generally stone-faced, D.C. lawyer. More talked about is Clooney’s impressive transformation, but he’s still got a demeanor that’s undeniably and un-definably Clooney- a combination of intensity and mischief it’s impossible to take your (ok, my) eyes off. Even with a beer belly.

So while “Syriana’”s subplots tip the balance from dense to crammed, Gaghan ought to be commended for whetting audience interest in politics of past and present, in the spirit of Clooney’s excellent “Good Night and Good Luck.” Along those lines, it serves as a worthy companion piece to Robert Baer’s book “See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism,” on which the film (and Clooney’s character) is based.

“See No Evil,” which was published just after the 9/11 attacks, is a thrilling read in its own right, and Baer’s insights are even scarier considering the current fear that the world’s oil supply really is drying up. That, along with the steady stream of suicide bombers and American hostages, makes me feel a little silly for harping on, say, Chris Cooper’s lack of screen time. “Syriana” may not stir emotions as effectively as “Traffic,” but the politics still pack a powerful punch.

Grade: B+