Syriana Review
by samseescinema (sammeriam AT comcast DOT net)December 13th, 2005
Syriana
reviewed by Sam Osborn of www.samseescinema.com
rating: 3 out of 4
Director: Stephen Gaghan
Cast: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper, Amanda Peet
Screenplay: Stephen Gaghan (suggested by Robert Baer's book) MPAA Classification: R (violence and language)
In reviewing political thrillers, critics often use words like taut, gripping, thrilling, edge-of-your-seat, and suspenseful to describe the films. But with Syriana, I'm reluctant to use any of these. For as much as the film's marketing blitz promotes the "thrilling" parts of the film, Syriana, for the most part, is slow-moving. In fact, the first half of the film doesn't even lay out a discernible plotline. We're presented countless threads of information for this first hour, with numberless characters and different countries and representations, varying government agencies and motives, and all without any sense of a linear foundation. But the tagline reads, "everything is connected," and essentially with this statement come words of comfort. "You'll be confused and lost," the tagline says, "but in the end, your efforts will be made good."
Syriana surrounds a fictitious merger between two oil conglomerates, Connex and Kileen. Jeffrey Wright plays Bennett Holiday, Sydney Hewitt's (Nicky Henson) stooge sent to look into the merger to dispel any corruption before the Department of Justice finds it. Clooney plays Bob Barnes, a CIA operative originally sent into Beirut to snuff out Prince Nasir Al-Subaai (Akbar Kurtha), the possible heir to the Iranian throne. And Matt Damon plays Bryan Woodman, the financial advisor to Prince Nasir, who's married to Julie, played by Amanda Peet. To explain the dozens of other, more peripheral characters and their connections to these primary three would take many more pages of explanation, and would ruin the fun of being utterly lost for Syriana's entire first act. Also, these three-Clooney, Damon, and Wright-are the only fully-dimensional characters of the film. They occupy the only roles capable of thoughtful and provoking performances, save Tim Blake Nelson's thunderous speech on corruption. All three actors do well, pulling in possible nomination nods, and accentuating Writer/Director Steven Gaghan's method of understated storytelling.
Syriana isn't drenched in moody, colorful hues or rambunctious up-tempo scores; but, instead highlights the reality of the story's situation. Fernando Meirelles' late summer film The Constant Gardener worked on the drama of a similarly controversial situation, but did so with operatic conventions. Where The Constant Gardener is a theatric, Syriana is a documentary. And Gaghan is really the star of this film. The camera is handheld, and is shot seemingly without post-production color correction. We're often given drab colors and over/under exposure. Gaghan strives to understate the drama of his situation, choosing instead to heighten the reality of it. He relishes this understated approach, and often slides in little bits of impressive style. For example, he has the tendency to overlap unconnected segments of audio and visuals. One scene puts Jeffrey Wright's character, Bennett, on a street walking towards camera, while the audio plays another character's speech spoken about Bennett's actions. Similar tricks are played with the camera's focus and perspective. Gaghan clearly has a hold over this film. From his fiery, cynical script to his muscular grip over the film's direction, Gaghan's character is palpable with this first directorial outing.
I think my opinion of Syriana would benefit from a second viewing. Gaghan drops us head-first into this complex political situation, and forces us to not only piece together the loose ends of its web of stories, but also figure out where each character's motives lie. It wasn't until 90 minutes into the film that I finally understood what Damon's character actually did for a living. It reminded me of last year's puzzle drama 21 Grams, that forced us to piece together its non-linear scenes to figure out who was exactly who. Now imagine playing this same directorial game, but simultaneously also trying to untangle a knot of political intrigue. These puzzles work, but on one level disappoint. By handling dozens of loose plot threads in the opening act, without any hint of connections, the film gives the impression that each of the numberless characters is simply spinning their wheels. We don't see any progress of plot until it finally kicks into gear at the second act. But the advantage of such a method lies sneakily in our confusion; we pay more attention to these loose threads, desperately trying to find the connection; so when pieces finally do start falling into place, we have an extremely deep understanding of Gaghan's story. And now, with this thorough understanding of Syriana's characters, I'm itching to get back to the multiplex to try the film back on. Gaghan's script will finally show its particularly finessed nuances in this second viewing, and show its true, and much more impressive colors. But for this first viewing--which I'm obligated to review--Syriana forces the viewer to work on two separate, but equally trying puzzles.
-reviewed by Sam Osborn of www.samseescinema.com
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