Confused Black Comedy

Rating: 4/10 (9 January 2011)

On paper this should have been a big hit since it stars several big names in the shape of George Clooney , Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges . It also features Ewan McGregor as the main character Bob Wilton and this is where the film collapses . Wilton is supposed to be an American war correspondent and if anyone who has seen one of his movies will tell you McGregor has a serious problem with American accents and a large proportion of the running time consists of Wilton speaking in voice over in a heavy handed attempt by screenwriter Peter Straughton to bring exposition to the narrative . It's a double whammy if the story needs to be explained in voice over and you find the narrator's voice distracting
This a great example of a film failing down to the screenplay . Every aspect of it can be faulted , It's too reliant on voice over and is fractured with the structure jumping back and forwards and director Grant Heslov compounds the problem even more by putting captions on screen explaining where and when the action is taking place which makes the audience feel they're being spoon fed information as if they're idiots . That said it is a " black comedy " that most vague of cinematic genres and every film aficionado knows it's probably the most difficult type of film to realise on screen successfully . A legend like Kubrick might be able to manage it but Heslov is obviously out of his depth
I do remember seeing a documentary by Jon Ronson several years ago based upon his book THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS . Ronson is a master of making highly idiosyncratic documentaries based upon eccentric themes and one can't help thinking that the premise lends itself better to an amusing documentary rather than Hollywood movie full of big name actors