Now more than ever, we need the Jedi...

Rating: 8/10 (9 November 2009)

The first, basic appeal of Grant Heslov's war comedy The Men Who Stare at Goats lies in the title: silly, amusing and just about unique enough to grab attention. Add a director with a solid reputation - he's George Clooney's producing partner and co-wrote the excellent Good Night, and Good Luck - and a stellar cast (Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey, plus terrific support from established character actors like Stephen Root, Robert Patrick and Glenn Morshower), and you've got all the right ingredients for a smart piece of entertainment.
Based on Welsh journalist Jon Ronson's non-fiction book (a story "more true than you would believe", according to the movie's opening caption), the film focuses primarily on the misadventures of Ronson's on-screen alter ego, the American Bob Wilton (McGregor, doing his finest accent work since Big Fish), a reporter who has gone off to a war-ridden Iraq to prove to his ex-wife that he is, in fact, a real man. Prior to his travel, he recounts his meeting with a former soldier (Root) who claimed to have been part of an unusual army unit. The story is confirmed when Wilton meets the disgraced Lyn Cassady (Clooney), who was once the most promising element of said unit: the New Earth army, a covert division born from the idea of a Vietnam veteran, Bill Django (Bridges), who believed it would be easier to win wars by resorting to the power of the mind, hence the recruitment of soldiers who were supposedly able to accomplish such feats as walking through solid walls and stopping a heart simply by staring at the subject (the hilarious titular scene). The unit was disbanded following the scheme of one Larry Hooper (Spacey), but now it appears to have resurfaced, and Cassady is headed to a new mission. Anything can happen...
The Men Who Stare at Goats works because it walks that fine line between amusingly serious and seriously zany without ever disrupting the balance between the two. Backed up by the fact that this is a (mostly) true story, it is therefore a film that manages to provoke huge laughs while at the same time cause reflections on the weird nature of America's participation in conflicts (the use of the Barney the Dinosaur theme song as a torture device was reportedly inspired by events depicted in the movie). The satire, while never specifically aimed at one element of the US government (although Ronald Reagan is mentioned at one point, to good effect), follows the example of Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove in that it never paves the way for outright silliness, barring the final 20 minutes which appear to have been conceived as a mere means to end the film (this is most obvious in the final shot which, funny as it may be, leaves a bit of a sour aftertaste).
The movie also works admirably as a straightforward comedy, thanks to instantly quotable lines (see Django's trial), clever cinematic winks (the New Earth Army men are called "Jedi warriors") and spot-on performances: McGregor, saddled with the seemingly ungrateful task of playing the "regular" guy, is a perfect vessel for the audience, enabling us to marvel at the sight of Clooney's terrific combination of smart and dumb, Bridges (sort of) resurrecting "The Dude" Lebowski via his hippie approach to warfare and Spacey adding a brilliant comedic shade to his traditional villainous persona. Not one false note when these people are around.
To sum it up, The Men Who Stare at Goats is a very thoughtful, insightful comedy, which boasts great ideas without forgetting to bring laughs along for the ride. Oh, and former Star Wars hero McGregor asking "What's a Jedi?" just has to be the year's best in-joke.