Clever, not funny.

Rating: 4/10 (24 June 2011)

This movie is a wasted effort by a lot of very talented people. It's got a top notch cast and a wonderful concept, but these filmmakers never really figured out what sort of story they wanted to tell and then were too cute by half in the telling of it. Though not without its charms, The Men Who Stare At Goats is ultimately uninvolving and concludes with a burst of feel good moments that are so forced it's like they were manufactured in a labor camp.
When the wife of small time newspaper reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) walks out on him, he decides to run away to the Middle East and become a war correspondent covering the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. While he cools his heels in Kuwait, Bob meets Lyn Cassidy (George Clooney) and discovers what should be a far more interesting story. As the two wander through the desert, Lyn tells Bob about his time as a secret psychic soldier for the U.S. Army. Under the new age tutelage of Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), Lyn and others supposedly learned to use the power of their minds to become "Jedi warriors" capable of the most amazing feats. Then an embittered sci-fi author (Kevin Spacey) joins the program, gets Django tossed out and puts the alleged powers of Lyn and others to evil use.
After all the flashbacks are over, the movie suddenly drops the whole psychic stuff and becomes a morality play about American involvement in Iraq, complete with capitalist mercenaries shooting each other by accident and prisoners being tortured on a secret base. Bob and Lyn strike ridiculously quixotic blows against American militarism, then it all wraps up with a call to action that seems to mock the idea that anything can really change.
The Men Who Stare At Goats is built like one of those Russian nesting dolls, but not in a good way. At first, it's the story of Bob trying to find meaning and masculinity in his life. But he ends up just standing around while the movie becomes about Lyn's sort-of-but-not-quite comedic adventures as a psychic solider. Then within Lyn's tale, we get the story of Bill Django and his efforts to blend military purpose with hippie counterculture. The most intriguing story is Django's and it's dealt with in the briefest way. Lyn's is the next most interesting but is related exclusively through overly clever flashbacks. Bob's part of this yarn is the least engaging, so of course he's the character the audience is supposed to identify with and follow through the film. You might have been able to make something out of either Lyn's or Bill's experiences, but smooshing them together inside Bob's lackluster "hero's journey" produces a motion picture that never settles on who or what it's about.
And then there's the problem that this is a comedy that tries and usually fails to get any laughs. The humor is too dry to be really funny and too wry to have any real bite. There're also some jokes that simply don't work, like constantly referring to the psychic soldiers as "Jedi". That's supposed to be funny because, you know, Ewan McGregor was in the Star Wars prequels. The joke wouldn't work if some other actor had played Bob and it still doesn't work with McGregor in the role. The Men Who Stare At Goats also falls prey to the common flaw of too many 21st century comedies in that what it wants to be is clever. While it succeeds, being clever is not the same thing as being funny. Instead of responding to this film with laughter, you can only admire its cleverness and I generally want a movie to entertain, not ask me to admire it.
It's a shame because there's obviously a lot of skill and ability being used here. Too bad it couldn't have been used to a more defined and less conceited purpose.