Whoever made the trailer for The Men Who Stare at Goats deserves an award. The viewer is treated to an unhinged, riotous minute-and-a-half. The theatergoer is not so lucky.
The film starts off with an enchanting premise, based on a true story in the mold of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. In 2003, freshly cuckolded journalist Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) ships off to Iraq in order to impress his estranged wife only to be indoctrinated by a contractor (George Clooney) into the fanciful world of the New Earth Army, a secret government project fronted by a hippie mystic (Jeff Bridges) to develop psychic soldiers.
Tragically, little comes of this wonderful premise. The film comes across as something between Coen brothers magical realism and a straightforward buddy/road movie. But here, it feels hollow, lacking the charm, mastery and humanity of the films it emulates. There are funny moments, but also emotional ones, which are painful.
The performances come close to redeeming the film at times. Bridges essentially recapitulates his Big Lebowski role, while Clooney delivers his tried-and-true charming, if unstable, scoundrel. Kevin Spacey is pleasantly snaky as fellow “Jedi” Larry Hooper, and McGregor does a perfectly serviceable impression of Jason Bateman in Protestant, nebbish mode.
Beyond the considerable charm of the plot and the abilities of the actors, however, there is little else to enjoy. The characters are paper-thin, the film is rushed at 90 minutes, the plot is deceptively by-the-numbers and any eccentric charm is undercut by pervasive preciousness and sentimentality.
To reword the tagline: few goats, few redeeming qualities.
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