Review of “Syriana”
It will make you fidget. It will make you think. And it will certainly stop you complaining that Hollywood doesn’t produce any films of political weight. Syriana is as ambitious and complex as its subject: the geo-politics of the oil industry.
Set primarily in the oil rich and peace poor Middle-east, Writer/Director Stephen Gaghan – who wrote the outstanding award-winning script for Traffic - takes a fragmented series of storylines and loosely stitches them together. He focuses rather on providing an overall sense of this badly behaved world of power, greed and manipulation, than giving us a coherent single narrative. The cast is huge and the characterisations are for the most part gritty, humane and serious. George Cloony stands out as Bob Barnes, a quietly agitated CIA agent more concerned with a missing Stinger missile than his own career. Beefed up, grey beaded and world-weary, this is the best performance ever from the usually smug Cloony.
Barnes is a Middle-east expert sent to deal with Prince Nasir, likely heir to the throne of a fictional Gulf State. The Prince, immaculately portrayed by Alexander Siddig, dares to dream of peace, women’s rights, freedom of expression, and rebuilding his country’s infrastructure – all far too much for the Americans, especially as two giant US oil companies are set to lose a valuable contract to the Chinese should Nasir take over from his ageing and sickly father. Matt Damon plays the idealistic economic advisor to the Prince, and it is his own family drama that provides much of the emotional content of the film. Meanwhile – and there are lots of meanwhiles – corporate oil mover-and-shaker Dean Whiting (Christopher Plummer at his best too) urges lawyer Bennett Holiday (Jeffery Wright) to ensure that there are no legal obstacles to a merger of the two oil companies. Add some disillusioned Pakistani workers who have come under the spell of a radical cleric, and mix gently with Hezbollah kidnappers and Justice Department investigations.
In documentary style, Gaghan carefully lays out the smallest fragments of his characters’ lives in bleakly intimate detail and without judgment, and lets us draw conclusions. The result is compelling, agitating and very watchable, despite the appearance of some unnecessary people. Gaghan more than compensates with his eye for the visually poignant, and his tight, minimal dialogue, clearly aimed at the disciples of deregulated global economics. A challenging, vital and restless film.
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