The Men Who Stare At Goats – The Title Is Enough

Director: Grant Heslov

Cast: George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey

“It wasn’t the Dim Mak that was killing Lyn. And it wasn’t the cancer. He was dying of a broken heart. And maybe, the cancer as well.”

This is, perhaps, George Clooney’s most serious role yet.  Much like Syriana’s Bob Barnes, Lyn Cassady is  man tortured by his past, and looking to make reparations.  Insert Ewan McGregor’s Bob Wilton, who is trying to find some significance in his life and you have…well not much of a comedy.

This movie is like staring at the screen for one and one-half hours and waiting for something funny to happen on that screen.  You get Jeff Bridges, playing a stoned commander with a heart of gold (yeah, sounds familiar, but it is not even worth it for that).  Kevin Spacey plays a mean guy who does mean stuff.

When I first saw the trailer, I saw the talent and thought to myself, there has to be something there.  When it made an extended blip on the screens, I thought, maybe it is too intelligent for theatergoers.  What it is…is a book that should have stayed one.  All the best lines read better in a book than stated without sense of irony by a narrator or any of the characters.

I hate to say it, stare somewhere else for an hour and a half.

*1/2 out of *****