I gotta say, the most benevolent response to “Syriana” I can come up with is complete neutrality. No matter how hard I try to rationalize the film to myself, I just can’t come up with anything all that glowing to say about it. My friend Kerry Douglas Dye feels mostly the same way, but gives it a vague tip of the fez based solely on the fact that it tackles tough questions and tries to paint on a wide, international canvas. But the truth of the matter is, as much as some simpletons out there are whining that “Syriana” is too complicated (it’s not), there’s no subject here that isn’t touched upon in your average episode of “The West Wing.” The main problem, I think, is Gaghan. This is a poorly directed film. All the performances are flat. And there are some good actors here. I mean, God, Clooney put in a great performance in the basically silent “Solaris.” Here, you can feel him trying, but his efforts aren’t put to good use. Same with the usually brilliant Jeffrey Wright. None of the characters have any depth — it is all just plot, plot, plot. Christopher Plummer is at least fun to watch, but as the big bad Dick Cheney-type (a part he is born to play) it is hard not to make that enjoyable. The script races around the world twelve times but neglects to make any of the characters sympathetic or even knowable. There is an attempt to humanize Matt Damon’s character, but the device used feels like a screenwriter backed into a corner. (Sorry, a swimming pool with a faulty auto-light is just too weirdly specific in a movie dealing with multi-billion dollar global pursuits.) Had John Sayles made this picture there’d be an interior to the characters and a jaundiced eye toward some of the scenes (everything here is terrifically on the nose). Had Steven Soderbergh directed and shot this (like “Traffic,” written by Gaghan) instead of just produced it, the film would at least have a look and a texture. What did I like about “Syriana?” The subplot about the unemployed Pakistani kids taking refuge in a militant Islamic school and becoming terrorists was quite riveting. Maybe Gaghan bit off way more than he could chew with his first film and shoulda just stuck with that more intimate story.
For me, there was enough interesting and obviously topical stuff to push it from neutral into “good” territory. But it did feel like this was a 3 to 3 1/2 hr movie masquerading as a 2 hr one. Seems like it would have played better longer, gotten you more involved in the characters. Did Gaghan have final cut? It would seem so, since this was done under the Section Eight banner (i.e. not as much studio pressure). If he did, then it’s his own fault — he just cut the movie’s legs out from under it.
Also, this was Gaghan’s second feature. He did a Katie Holmes movie a few years back, which I heard was a stinker.