More gormless, bland comedy than irreverent satire, yet amusing nonetheless

Rating: 6/10 (10 January 2010)

If a film's quality could be equated to the strength of its marketed potential, The Men Who Stare at Goats would have been a no holds barred cinematic triumph. Everything from its marvellously oddball title to the stellar cast assembled to the tactfully unconventional posters (announcing "Goat" as the last star cast member of the film) suggested a gleefully irreverent, strange and wilfully brave film, whether functioning as a military spoof or oddball comedy on its own right. Bearing this in mind, the film is hardly a failure, but runs the risk of feeling like one, largely because none of the tantalizing aforementioned standards of quality are met. Rather, in contrast, the film, while still managing to amuse from time to time, feels excessively safe rather than brave, conventional rather than strange, and lukewarm and gormless rather than gleeful or irreverent.
The main problem is the film's overall hesitancy, as if afraid of alienating audiences by becoming the far out, bizarre comedy it hints at, while equally concerned about pushing too many buttons by poking too much fun at the military - the irony being, both were aims the film promoted itself as meeting, thus suggesting qualities audiences would be interested in seeing in the film. Director Grant Heslov without question plays it safe, consistently hitting a tone comfortably in the midst of mainstream, accessible and friendly comedy (the musical score in particular reeks of familiar comedy cliché riffs) with occasional polite satirical barbs ("the military does some silly things in the name of war, but is ultimately still all right") being the extent of the film's much hyped exposure or caustic wit. With such a forceful 'anti-bias', the film uneasily dabbles between ridiculing and vaguely supporting the army, making it difficult for the viewer to situate themselves in the equation, and, equally, decide what to laugh at. As such, Heslov's film is far more likely to evoke puzzled glances than chuckles, from viewers just as confused as to exactly what the film is trying to say (not from being clever and hard to understand, but rather inconsistent and vague) as what happened to the advertised film they expected to, and with a more bold director and intelligent script, could have, seen.
As such, the pleasure factor in the film resides solely in its superb cast, who, despite largely being given little to work with, manage to cobble together an amusing romp, albeit one still lacking in fundamental complexity and wit. Despite the questionable quality of the film at hand, one has to tip their hat to George Clooney to committing so wholeheartedly to whatever sparks of comic madness lay in it, as he unleashes his legendary charisma in full force with a welcome side order of manic paranoia and demented intensity as whiz paranormal G.I. Lynn Cassidy. Like Cassidy himself, Clooney's clipped urgency and wide-eyed passion are enough to sell what is largely a very silly and hardly believable story, and it is impossible to imagine the film holding together without his reassuring comic centrepiece of a performance. As the befuddled reporter following Cassidy's story, Ewan McGregor feels wasted, stuck with a thankless 'straight man' role, but manages to draw out several amusing moments nonetheless, many self-reflexively revolving around Cassidy's numerous Jedi references. Nonetheless, the unabashed scene-steal is Jeff Bridges as a flower-child military commander. Refusing to coast alone on either a hippie stereotype or the mere comedic tension of his character, Bridges instead infuses his role with unexpected tragic underpinnings and poignancy, managing to not only be uproariously funny but surprisingly sympathetic and moving. Kevin Spacey also raises numerous chuckles as a petulant, adversarial paranormal soldier, but one cannot help but feel both the role and his rendition of it to fall somewhat below their full potentials.
The film's occasional, fleeting moments of irreverent genius (a particularly wacky ending being none the least of them) suggest an initially far more strange, silly and politically pointed film being disappointingly morphed into a more flaccid, safe substitute somewhere along the line, but such moments and the fun the cast has with them are what ultimately breathe some semblance of life into the overall work. Nonetheless, while it overall proves an amusing, sufficiently interesting and sometimes downright funny watch, there lingers a perpetual sense of vague disappointment circulating around The Men Who Stare at Goats, as if the ghost of the film's far superior potential lingers ever intangible but consistently discernible, like one of Cassidy's psychic premonitions. A worthwhile watch, but far from the triumph it rather easily could have been.
-6.5/10