An all star cast can't save this misconstrued story

Rating: 5/10 (19 August 2010)

The Men Who Stare at Goats has one of the most talented cast lineups that could possibly be arranged in this day and age. Three out of the four leads are Oscar winners with long and excellent careers. George Clooney won for Syriana in 2005, Jeff Bridges won for Crazy Heart in 2009, and Kevin Spacey won for The Usual Suspects in 1996 and again in 1999 for American Beauty. The fourth lead, Ewan McGregor has also had a successful career, surely with much more to come. This kind of lineup would be any directors field day, so it was quite a shame when this film ended up not coming together at all. It ends up being a disjointed jumble of scenes with an underdeveloped plot and underdeveloped characters with poor motivation. It was quite depressing to watch such a talented group of actors crash and burn in this poorly written and poorly directed schlock film.
The Men Who Stare at Goats begins with a great concept. It is about a journalist named Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) who wants to go and report in Iraq during the war to prove to his ex-wife that he is a responsible and respectable man. While in Iraq he meets Lyn Cassaday (George Clooney). Cassaday tells Wilton about how he was part of a secret military organization back in the 80's called Project Jedi. Project Jedi's initiative was to train psychic soldiers that fought with their mind instead of weapons. The whole idea is absurd and hilarious, and the best part is that the movie begins with a disclaimer reading: "More of this is true than you would believe." It leaves most of the truth up to speculation and up to viewer discretion to decide what really happened with this wacky secret operation. This concept would have been great if the flow of this film had any sort of coherence and a much better sense of direction.
While Wilton and Cassaday are trying to reach their destination in Iraq there are many flashbacks which explain the history of Project Jedi. These flashbacks are thrown in at very random points that break the flow of the film, making it feel very strange and out of place. And because there are so many flashbacks about 75% of the story in this film is the story told within the flashbacks. The storyline set in present day seems to be put on the back burner and by the end of the film it feels very underdeveloped, as well as Ewan McGregor's character which only appears in the present day scenes. This is a recipe for disaster when the flashbacks lead up to where Cassaday and Wilton find themselves at the rushed ending of the film. My interest gradually faded amidst the disjointed middle of the film, and the ending was so out of place and strangely executed that my interest never returned.
All this being said, The Men Who Stare at Goats is a fairly funny film. It was marketed as an absurd comedy with an all star cast. It meets these requirements, yet doesn't excel like you would think. I admittedly laughed out loud during this film, and a lot of the time this can save a film for me. The problem here, however, was that even though the movie was set up as a comedy, it tried too hard to be so much more as the story progressed. It had elements of comedy, drama, action, and even sci-fi, ultimately getting lost in itself. If the movie hadn't taken itself so seriously it might have succeeded slightly more. On the other side of the coin, this film had such a robust cast that you would hope it would take itself seriously, so as not to be another silly Will Ferrell comedy (not saying I don't enjoy his movies but we all know what to expect when walking into a Ferrell movie). This paradox unfortunately construes this film into a mess of genres that drive the film head first into the ground, causing it to be an untimely disaster.
An interesting concept and fantastic cast save this film from being absolutely terrible, but it still leaves so much to be desired. With a more seasoned director and writer that could handle this film with more care and precision, it could have been great. Or if it had been about a half hour longer, so as to fully develop the story and characters, and fine tune the mishmash of genres it presents. The Men Who Stare at Goats is an unfortunate waste of talent.