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Chickens Coming Home To Roost Favorite Movie Quote: "Do you understand what I'm saying? I want you to acknowledge that you do understand so that we're clear and there won't be any mistakes." The amazing thing about the type of events depicted in a film like Syriana is that, even as complex as the film is, it's still a gross over-simplification. I give it kudos for attempting and for being moderately successful. Syriana doesn't take any time to establish exactly where everyone is and why they're there; you pay attention or fall behind. It starts off with George Clooney's "Bob", an operative for the CIA that has been a good soldier playing to win for the United States. His biggest problem stems from the fact that he's completely unschooled in politics and underestimates those who are. Also established is financial advisor Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon), who finds himself intertwined with Nasir Al-Subaai (Alexander Siddig), a liberal Prince of a fictional Persian Gulf kingdom, snake-in-the-grass attorney Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) as he tries to sidestep legal landmines regarding the merger of two oil companies, and Wasim Khan (Mazhar Munir), an impressionable young man, desperate when he and his father are laid off as a result of global economic chess. Needless to say, Syriana quickly becomes a spiderweb of intersecting fates whether the audience - or the characters themselves - realize it. It should be clear that Syriana is a fictional story based loosely on the accounts of former CIA operative Robert Baer in his memoir See No Evil. Even so, there are enough identifiable skeletons in this closet to make a proud American cringe in embarrassment. Syriana's greatest strength may also be its greatest weakness; while the complexity of the film unfolds it only scratches the surface of issues in and about the Middle East, but there will be moments when you don't know what the hell is going on. My biggest problem was that they never said in what country Nasir was Prince (at one point I thought Kazakhstan); research revealed it to be a purposeful dodge, as Nasir was a fictional character from a fictional kingdom. I also would need some hard evidence to believe that it is American foreign policy to assassinate a reasonable, educated man like Prince Nasir. Robert Baer, on whom Clooney's character is based, claims to have been tasked with assassinating Saddam Hussein; Nasir is portrayed as a good, intelligent man, fighting against Islamic extremist policies. This, coupled with a handful of speeches at dramatically appropriate moments, lets the film at times become cliched and didactic. Where Syriana's strongest, I think, is the idea it posits that you reap what you sow on a global level just as you do on a personal one. This is played out in more or less every single character in the film in some way or another, and is certainly apparent on a global scale in the film's conclusion. Syriana was nominated for two Academy Awards, writer/director Stephen Gaghan for best screenplay (an award he won for Traffic in 2001), and George Clooney for best supporting actor, which he won. To be able to keep as many balls up in the air as Gaghan does, I think is definitely worthy of acclaim, but while I liked Clooney's performance, I thought he was outshined by co-stars Siddig and Wright. While a hard film to watch, both for its format and its subject matter, there's no question that Syriana is a smart film. I hear audiences all the time clamor for more intellectual fare, but then films like Syriana do only moderately well while big brainless flicks rake in hundreds of millions of dollars. Cause and effect. Everything is connected. email this review to a friend
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