REVIEW: ‘The Men Who Stare At Goats’

There’s a fantastic cast in “The Men Who Stare At Goats,” and a wonderful premise. In the hands of another director or writer, the movie might have lived up to its promise.

The aforementioned “men” are a division of the US Army, given a mandate to develop psychic powers to combat America’s enemies. The greatest of the New Earth Army, Lyn Cassidy (George Clooney), is found by reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) while crossing into Iraq during the 2002 invasion. Through the course of their trip through the Iraqi desert, the rise and fall of the New Earth Army and its founder, Bill Django (Jeff Bridges) is recounted to an incredulous Wilton.

“The Men Who Stare At Goats” Rated R • 93 minutes Starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey Directed by: Grant Heslov Written By: Peter Straughan RCC Rating: Worth Your Time On Cable

The greatest sin of the movie is the simple problem that the movie doesn’t know whether to believe its own conceit or not. The whole concept of the movie itself – that Clooney and his fellow New Earth Army soldiers are psychic warriors – is never fully given credence, or debunked. There’s a difference between leaving a bit of mystery to allow the viewer to decide for themselves, but the fence-sitting is just too unbearable. For every time you’re given a glimmer of hope that Clooney can really see into the Great Beyond, you’re brought crashing back with an example of his ineptitude. After enough of these peaks and valleys, I just didn’t care anymore.

Equally annoying is its pacing, which is way off. Telling a good chunk of the movie in flashback breaks up the narrative quite a bit, but the tone of the film wavers too much between broad comedy and serious business.

With the exception of Clooney, the acting talent in “Goats” was either wasted (Jeff Bridges), miscast (Ewan McGregor), or sleeping their way through it all (Kevin Spacey). A dream team of acting talent, the cast of “Goats” doesn’t gel at all. It’s tough enough to get past McGregor’s American accent, but seeing Spacey sleepwalk through his bad-seed role is almost unbearable.

A fair bit of the blame should go to the script, but it’s likely Grant Heslov, directing his first full-length feature, who should shoulder the majority of it. He’s directed several shorter projects, but the move to the feature stage seems to overwhelm him. Heslov’s a gifted writer and actor, but pedigree will only get you so far.

In the end, “The Men Who Stare At Goats” winds up as a misguided, flat bore. With a cast this capable, and subject matter this rich, it doesn’t take a psychic to see that a different approach should have been taken.