BBC Films/Overture Films | USA/UK |90 mins
They do stare at goats, in case you’re wondering. But, like most scenes in this strangely square, oddly disengaging film about one of the more interesting military tales to be told in some time, the “goat” scene comes and goes and leaves the viewer cold, like after an emotionless night of sex. This is what the whole film feels like – a good, fun time that will be an engaging story to tell to your friends, but you’ll end up feeling there wasn’t much to be gained from the experience as a whole.
Director Grant Heslov and writer Peter Straughan certainly are intelligent storytellers and well-versed in the true life behind this thing, but it seems as though they never really decided on what parts of the “incredible true story” to focus on, and instead offer a smorgasbord of history and fiction and history and fiction and then – it ends.
The film revolves around journalist Bob Wilton (a very normal, bland Ewan McGregor here) and his search for a story in one Lyn Cassady (a capably comedic George Clooney), an ex-operative of the top secret New Earth Army, led by Bill Django, played by Jeff Bridges as a militarized version of The Dude. In short, Django trained his soldiers to fight with their minds rather than weapons; training that included running through walls and making the correct decision in a split second – or at least trying to do these things.
So it’s funny right? That the U.S. government would pay for something like this? Or wait, no it’s not funny – it’s sad that no one ever gave the New Earth Army a chance and instead stuck to torture and violence? Or wait, no it’s funny though too, but also sad? Or just sad?
Intent viewers are sure to think all of these things during the short, 90-minute running time Goats hustles along at, and never know how the movie actually feels about it. They’ve got a story, after all, and it’s a good one – so they tell it. They just tell it, and that’s all they do.
And, to a point, it is enough: it’s literally a story so good it tells itself. But this critic wishes that Heslov had tried a little harder to work with the abundance of materials he’d chose to adapt. After all, the opening text of the film states: “More of this is true that you would believe.” Then make us believe the unbelievability. This, unfortunately, doesn’t happen. Sure, it’s all strange and ridiculous, but after films like The Informant! this year, it seems that anything could be true.
Clooney controls the laughs of every scene he’s in, recalling his small gem of a performance in last year’s Burn After Reading. Likewise does Bridges, and though Kevin Spacey, as the film’s villain, is given precious little to do he certainly makes the most of what he’s got. These are talented people working here, but unfortunately not working hard enough.
6 out of 10