|
 fter
a major
US
oil company loses a lucrative bid for the rights
to virgin oil fields in
Kazakhstan
, an unknown upstart oil exploration firm swoops
in to snatch up those same rights at bargain
prices. Shortly thereafter, the major oil company
buys out the upstart, thus acquiring the oil
rights by default. Sounds fishy, doesn't it? It
certainly does to Congress, who launches an
investigation. Thus begins a labyrinthine tale of
political intrigue and backdoor business deals in
director Steven Gaghan's "Syriana."
Summarizing
"Syriana" is virtually impossible
without giving away the plot and the story's
intricacies, but suffice to say that the film has
three major threads. The first involves burnt out
CIA field operative Bob Barnes (George Clooney,
"Ocean's
Eleven") who gets the wrong end of the
stick after taking the proverbial 'one last job'
before settling down behind a desk. The second
involves the aforementioned oil company merger and
the subsequent investigation which leads to a
legal stand-off between the Justice Department and
hotshot oil company attorney Bennett Holiday
(Jeffrey Wright, "Shaft").
The third and last plotline
involves a power shift within the royal family of
an unnamed oil-rich Middle East Emirate. With the
incumbent Emir infirm of body, a struggle for the
throne ensues between Prince Nasir (Alexander
Siddig, best known as Dr. Bashir on "Star
Trek: DS9"), a reform-minded moderate who is
interested in selling his oil to someone other
than the US, and his playboy younger brother
Prince Meshal (Akbar Kurtha, "Bhaji on the
Beach"), who is more than happy to be a
stooge to the US so long as he can maintain his
bling-bling lifestyle.
As these three stories
converge, side plots involving the CIA, a radical
Islamic cleric and a Geneva-based energy trader
all materialize and blend together to form a
stunning and busy tapestry suspended by powerful
performances. The most common complaint I hear
about "Syriana" is that it's too hard to
follow. These people must have expected a brain
dead action movie because there was an explosion
in the film's trailer. The movie is actually quite
straightforward if you invest even a minimum
amount of thought, and keeping track of the
various plot threads is aided by Gaghan's decision
to cast recognizable actors in the principle
roles.
Alexander Siddig is a
standout as the embattled Prince Nasir,
effectively conveying a deep-seated frustration at
the lack of progress in his country brought about
not only by radical Islam, but also by constant
meddling from foreign interests. Matt Damon is
also excellent as the ambitious energy trader who
willingly profits from a family tragedy. Notable
supporting performances are turned in by
Christopher Plummer ("The Insider") as
the head of the sleazy legal firm handling the oil
company merger, and Chris Cooper ("Jarhead")
as the CEO of one of the oil companies.
Perhaps the aspect of the
film that gives the average viewer the most
difficulty is the looseness with which Gaghan
handles all the different storylines. He takes a
very broad approach, choosing to dwell more on how
each character's path is affected by each of the
others, not so much by direct interaction, but
rather by circumstance. As a result, there are
many details about each character that are never
resolved, but given the film's structure, they
don't need to be, and whatever information those
details are supposed to be pointing out can be
easily inferred by the end.
The brilliant complexity, yet
total simplicity of the script is what keeps
"Syriana" moving. The pacing is
excellent and, despite the heavy amount of
content, there is hardly a wasted moment. The
script's master stroke is how it sets up its
characters, every one of which, no matter how
small the part, has an important role to play.
"Syriana's" subject
matter naturally lends itself to plenty of
fictitious politicizing. The
US
government manipulating the internal power
struggle of another country to ensure that the
country's government has US interests in mind?
That would never happen. The self-righteous
righties will dismiss it as a piece of
anti-American leftist propaganda, while the
limp-wristed lefties will take it as a truthful
and scathing indictment of the
US
government's corrupt relationship with Big Oil.
Quite frankly, if you swap the
Middle East
with
Colombia
and oil with cocaine, you've got the same
storyline as "Clear and Present Danger",
and I don't recall anyone calling for Tom Clancy
to be run out of town.
Given that Gaghan won an
Oscar for his script for "Traffic," it's
not surprising that "Syriana" is
constructed in a similar fashion as Soderbergh's
film. But if "Syriana" has one weakness,
it's that it is too much like "Traffic."
From the cut-and-paste structure to the fatalistic
'business is as business does' ending, there's a
bit of a retread feel permeating the film that
prevents it from standing out fully on its own.
And while "Syriana" handles its myriad
plot threads with aplomb, by the end you get the
feeling that Gaghan wrote one thread too many, and
decided to just leave it all in rather than being
a bit more judicious in the editing room.
Overall, "Syriana"
is an engrossing and delightfully demanding film
that brilliantly weaves together fully realized
characters into a distant yet instantly
recognizable landscape. And for that alone, it
deserves to be considered one of the best films of
2005. |
