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'Goats' falls short of the great war satires
Overture Films photo
George Clooney plays a member of the New Earth Army, which uses New Age techniques to give soldiers a spiritual edge over the enemy.
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The Men Who Stare at Goats
(out of four)
• Stars: George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey.
• Director: Grant Heslov
• Rating: R
• Running time: 93 minutes
• Showing: Grand 18, Wynnsong 12, Creekside.
• Reviewer's opinion: <i>The Men Who Stare at Goats</i> has fuzzy vision.
Published: November 5, 2009
A fun tone is undermined by disjointed storytelling in George Clooney's The Men Who Stare at Goats, and it all starts with the disclaimer that opens the movie: "More of this is true than what you might imagine."
This wry comment serves as a nod and a wink from the filmmakers, a license to do what they will to Jon Ronson's amusing nonfiction account of the U.S. military's hush-hush research into psychic warfare and espionage.
What Clooney's producing partner, first-time director Grant Heslov, and his colleagues come up with is a hit-and-miss fictional narrative. On it are strung some of the brightest anecdotes Ronson uncovered about efforts to create warrior monks who try to walk through walls or glare animals to death.
The priceless opening scene -- recreating the start of Ronson's book as a general tries to displace his molecules and run through his office wall -- promises a Catch-22 or Strangelove-style satire. But the book is a loosely connected journey from one absurdity to the next, sprouting offshoots and asides, great stand-alone burlesques and dramas that don't lend themselves to a cohesive film.
The dramatic spine developed by screenwriter Peter Straughan jettisons much of the book's darkest and most-compelling moments -- a CIA murder plot, psychic-warfare links to the Branch Davidians and the Heaven's Gate cult suicides -- in favor of a gag-laden jaunt stretching from Vietnam through the war on terror.
Delivered with goofy gusto by Clooney and co-stars Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor and Kevin Spacey, Goats is fitful, undemanding, and ultimately lightweight humor.
Something of a stand-in for Ronson, McGregor's Bob Wilton is a reporter who stumbles onto the story of the New Earth Army, founded by Vietnam vet Bill Django (Bridges). The group uses New Age techniques to give troops a spiritual edge and superpowers to win over enemies -- or wipe them out.
Django's prize pupil is Lyn Cassady (Clooney), whom Wilton accompanies through a series of mishaps on a mission in Iraq.
Inspired by real people Ronson encountered, Cassady and Django have the scent of authenticity about them. Not so with Wilton and his awkward, ill-defined motivations for uncovering the story, or with Spacey's Larry Hooper, a psychic rival to Cassady who is a stiff contrivance meant to add tension.
The plot isn't terribly interesting, though it's nicely ornamented by little farces lifted from the book.
In fits and starts, director Heslov captures a lot of the drolly incredulous spirit of the book. It's just too bad the dots don't connect better.
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