The Men Who Stare At Goats
As an ardent George Clooney fan (and who isn't these days) I was really looking forward to this one. Having watched trailers for 'Goats' nearly a year ago, this seemed like exactly my cup of tea. Sharp, witty and intelligent scripting with a storyline to get your teeth into, and filled with some of the greatest actors of their generation.
For starters, who could expect anything but a five star performance from Kevin Spacey? And Jeff Bridges as the military man with peace and love coarsing through him so strongly that his innards would say as much were you to saw the man in half. Add the aforementioned Clooney plus Ewan McGregor and you have a great cast that, at first glance, could possibly do no wrong.
Who would have guessed then that this film and the words 'trial' and 'boredom' could possibly ever appear in the same sentence? Well they do, and in reviews far more skilled than I could muster here.
And so begins the story that Wilton ends up telling us. The story of psychic soldiers and their powers. A tale so fantastic and outlandish that it couldn't possibly be real. So incredible that it couldn't possibly be dull. So full of promise that it couldn't possibly do anything but engage it's audience.
Well...no.
This should really have been a hoot a minute rollercoaster. It should have impressed with it's acting acumen as much as it should have provoked it's audiences with it's ideas. And at times this effort did display little nuggets of promise. They were few and far between, however, and by the time you're half an hour in, you're not only wondering where exactly this film is going, but you're asking yourself if you really want to go with it.
When eternally aspiring journalist Bob Wilton's (McGregor) wife runs off with his one armed boss, he begins to wonder what his life is all about, and suitably free of any ties, decides to follow a story that will take him to the Iraqi border.
This is not before he has interviewed an ex-member of a secret top level military black ops team, that proceeds to tell him, all too easily I feel, about his life in his highly mysterious unit. He claimed to be a psychic soldier.
When Wilton presses him about the units reason for being and what they did that was so secretive, he explained just some of the things they were able to do. Wistfully, he reminisces about one particular member of his unit who has seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth, namely one Lyn Cassady (Clooney)
And who should Wilton 'accidentally' bump into on that same Iraqi border, slumming quietly in a hotel bar, like Wilton, waiting to get into Iraq? You guessed it. The same Lyn Cassidy.
McGregor's Wilton is dull, one-dimensional and at times, almost wooden. His narration is not expressive enough, coming from a lover of words and flow, as most writers are. Every time McGregor talks over what is seen, it almost passes you by. Clooney is occasionally inspiring as Cassady, but this is fleeting and even he appears to be going through the motions with a script that he may have initially liked, but like McGregor, you can't help but feel like this project is one of duty for him rather than choice.
Kevin Spacey was surplus to requirements if I'm honest and he had little material to impress with or time on screen to do it in. The only member of the cast that would appear to have come out of this with any real kudos would be Jeff Bridges, whose turn as hippy new earth leader, Bill Django, is likeable and disarming, even if not remotely believable.
Yes, we get the Jedi joke and we don't need it rammed down our throats over a dozen times. Yes, we know McGregor played a Jedi in some other movies. Can we move on now.
The story lacks any real punch or notable set pieces and in a desperate second act, this audience member was already looking at his watch. A shame, given the great cast offered. I just wonder if all of the main cast swapped places and did a different role that was taken by another, whether this would have been so laborious.
On the whole, this is way below par from everyone here, with the exception, as mentioned of Jeff Bridges, who seems to turn in an equally flawless and effortless performance while all around him are doing exactly the same thing as me, looking at my watch, wondering just when they could get the hell out of here.
Disappointing.
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