Grant Heslov’s “The Men Who Stare At Goats” is one of those stories that begins with a statement of its truthfulness. If this story were true, that would probably be the most interesting thing about the film. We get an interesting premise, some colorful characters, but combined, we get a film that doesn’t really know how to tell its story.
It begins with reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) interviewing a man who claims to have been part of a special military force of psychics. While interviewing him, he mentions to Bob that the top soldier in his group was a man by the name of Lyn Cassady (George Clooney). Not long after this interview, Bob’s wife leaves him for his editor, causing him to want to get away. He decides to try to get into Iraq to cover the war, however, he has to wait in a neighboring country first. This is where he coincidentally runs into Lyn and decides to interview him.
While journeying with Lyn, he tells Bob about how the New Earth Army was established by a man named Bill Django (Jeff Bridges). He also tells him of other members of the group like Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey), who really disliked him. Their main purpose was to use their psychic powers to defeat their enemies. They apparently had the ability to disrupt thought patterns as well as powers of intuition. Meanwhile, in present day, Bob and Lyn get a little lost in the desert while trying to find the location of what may be a mission for Lyn.
“Goats” tries its best to be a black comedy, telling jokes that can be a little dark at times, but all of them fall flat. The funniest parts of the film come from hearing Ewan McGregor talk about Jedis (for that’s what these psychic warriors are called) and claiming not to know what they are. The film is simply not funny.
The most interesting parts of the story are the flashbacks to the start and progression of the New Earth Army, but these are done in such a quick manner, not really giving us a good taste of what happened, causing them to not have much of an impact. There was certainly room for them to expand upon this backstory to really draw the audience in, but all we get are these really small doses.
The present day scenes with Lyn and Bob are somewhat interesting. They leave us guessing as to what Lyn is really up to, as in what his true purpose of being in the Middle East is. These scenes do eventually get somewhere, but they come to involve the characters that we have been scarcely told about in flashback, so having not been able to make that connection with those characters in the very brief flashbacks, we end up not really caring about them in the present day either.
Even with all of the acting talent, the film just couldn’t elevate itself enough to be entertaining. Clooney doesn’t even seem to be trying here, which is a disappointment after seeing how great he was in “Up in the Air,” but I guess he must not of had much faith in this material. Spacey and Bridges are not seen on screen as much as they could have been; another fault resulting from the brief flashbacks. Ewan McGregor actually gives the best and most animated performance here, putting forth some effort into his inquisitive character.
The film concludes with a strange and mostly forgettable ending. The journey that feels like it had been building to some kind of climax just kind of fizzles out. It’s strange because the material that they had to work with here sounds really interesting and could have made for a great comedy, but it seems that the filmmakers just couldn’t find a good way to tell the story of these people. Even at a brief running time of 87 minutes, the film feels stretched, leaving you as “the person who blankly stares at the screen”…until it’s finally over.
2.5/4 stars.
You can read this and other reviews in my column at The Richmond Examiner.