The Men Who Stare at Goats

 

Reviewed 9 November 2009 by Ted Faraone

 

Three stars out of five; $7.50 ticket on a scale of $0 to $12.50.

 

IT WOULD BE FUNNIER IF IT WERE NOT MOSTLY TRUE

 

“The Men Who Stare at Goats,” a comedy starring George Clooney, is based in part on a true story -- a 1970s US Army R&D project called “Stargate,” which was an attempt to realize a thing called “Remote Viewing.” 

 

The idea was that certain people possessed the power of telepathy and could see what was going on halfway around the world given the proper conditions.  This was before we had Google Earth and spy satellites that can see if one has put out one’s cigarette on the sidewalk.

 

Pic is a vehicle for Clooney, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Spacey, despite the alleged lead going to Ewan McGregor as small town newspaperman Bob Wilton who decides to become an Iraq War correspondent after wife Debora (Rebecca Madder) leaves him for his crippled editor.

 

Clooney and McGregor enjoy a sort of “meet cute” in a Kuwaiti hotel.  Therein lies pic’s first problem.  It starts out as a buddy film.  Once Clooney’s ex-US Army Lyn Cassady (a veteran of the Remote Viewing project) and McGregor’s Wilton have become partners in crime, it becomes farce -- on the order of the Peter Falk - Alan Arkin vehicle, “The In-Laws.”  Exposition, which comes largely in flashback from Jeff Bridges’ role as Col. Bill Django, a Vietnam company commander whose outfit is nearly decimated by the unwillingness of new soldiers to shoot to kill the enemy, lends a sympathetic cast to military folks who see themselves as guardians of peace rather than warriors.  It is Django who creates Stargate.

 

Into this frittata strides Kevin Spacey, wonderfully cast as bad guy Larry Hooper, the soldier who busts up Stargate and then, two decades later as a G.W. Bush-era defense contractor, applies the project’s knowledge to the interrogation of captured Iraqis (most of whom are lab-rats rather than suspects) using a ruined Django as his top scientist.  Spacey is so good at playing the a-hole that it makes one wonder what he draws on.

 

At this point, courtesy of Jeff Bridges’ Django lacing breakfast with LSD, pic transcends the genres buddy, farce, and slapstick and enters the paranormal for a tad too equivocal an ending.  That is unfortunate, because pic is technically excellent and benefits from superior performances by all principals, especially Clooney and Bridges, despite the liberties it takes with the facts.  It is as if helmer Grant Heslov and screenwriter Peter Straughan were afraid to take a stand and stick to it.

 

At 94 minutes, pic moves at a good clip.  Rated “R”, it features a bare tush and a naked breast or two, but other than some language, there is nothing unsuitable for children, who may well be amused by its broad comedy.  Title comes from an alleged Army test in which soldiers were made to stare at goats until said goats lapsed into unconsciousness.  Ah, telepathy….

 

--30--

 

 

Photos (top to bottom): George Clooney stares at goat; Clooney & Kevin Spacey in the 1970s Army R&D project; Clooney, Waleed Zuaiter, and Ewan McGregor surrender to bandits; Clooney, Jeff Bridges, & McGregor with subjects; Bridges leads Clooney in exercise for the "New Earth Army."