Movie Review: The Men Who Stare At Goats (2009)

As far as absurdist comedies go, The Men Who Stare at Goats is better than most.  It doesn't reach the echelon of truly great like The Big Lebowski or Annie Hall, but manages to be an entertaining movie throughout.

Although the story bounces around a lot, the basic frame is as follows:  Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is a down-on-his luck journalist.  His wife has just left him for his editor and his job isn't exactly fulfilling, so he decides that a drastic shake-up is needed.  Thus, he decides to go to the Middle East as a war correspondent.  It's there that he meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), who claims to be a former member of an elite group of psychic soldiers known within the military as "Jedi."

Told as a mix of contemporary dialogue between Wilton and Cassady and flashbacks detailing the rise of the psychic soldiers, the film relies on the performance of its actors.  Fortunately, everyone is up to the task.  McGregor plays a terrific "slightly off-balanced straight man."  Clooney builds upon his strong performance in Burn After Reading, although this time his character is less paranoid and more delusional.

In addition to the leads, both Jeff Bridges, in a role that bears remarkable similarities to his performance as "The Dude" in The Big Lebowski, and Kevin Spacey, in a role that is disappointingly one-dimensional, provide strong performances, although their characters aren't nearly as strong as either Clooney of McGregor's.

Unfortunately, the first half of The Men Who Stare at Goats is so funny and original that the second half feels like a let down.  What starts as a comedy about the absurdity of the military funding a unit of psychic soldiers turns into a slightly bored war melodrama, and the jokes start coming fewer and farther between.  It never dips into the realm of being unwatchable or even truly boring, but I was hoping for more out of the end.  Perhaps the fault of first time director Grant Heslov (who did help co-write Good Night, and Good Luck with Clooney) or relatively inexperienced screenwriter Peter Straughan (whose largest credit so far has been How to Lose Friends and Alienate People), but the movie definitely needed a change in pacing.

Although spreading the drama and comedy more evenly throughout the film would've made it a better film overall, The Men Who Stare at Goats is still a worthwhile film.  The first of three high-profile movies for Clooney this holiday season (with Fantastic Mr. Fox scheduled for a Thanksgiving release and Up in the Air scheduled to come out on Christmas) and possibly the least hyped of the three, The Men Who Stare at Goats' quality definitely predicates a great year for Clooney.  Whether the quality of these three films turns into box office returns or merely critical acclaim remains to be seen, but it's definitely going to be a great year for Clooney.


Rating:  8/10