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Rating: Country: USA Release Date: November 6, 2009 Distributor: Overture Films Director: · Grant Heslov Cast: · George Clooney · Ewan McGregor · Jeff Bridges · Kevin Spacey Related Sites: · Feel free to eyeball some goats yourself at the official movie website! Grade: B

"The Men Who Stare At Goats" is a film that's bound to attract some curious moviegoers on the strength of the title alone. Strangely enough, the film actually is about men who stare at goats. It's easy to compare this smart comedy to the Coen Brothers hits "The Big Lebowski" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" as the cast features the main players from each: Jeff Bridges and George Clooney. The quirky characters and meandering-with-a-purpose plot are hallmarks of Joel and Ethan Coen's films. It may come as a surprise when the credits roll and you discover that "The Men Who Stare At Goats" is written by Peter Straughan, based on the book by Jon Ronson, and directed by Grant Heslov. Straughan also wrote the screenplay for "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People" while Heslov, surprisingly, does not have a great deal of experience as a director. He's an actor himself as well as Clooney's writing and producing partner with credits in such films as "Leatherheads" and "Good Night, and Good Luck." Heslov doesn't lack confidence, bringing an unusual story based lightly on factual Cold War psychic research to life in a way that keeps you laughing and guessing right up to the end. I heard comparisons to the Coens as I left the screening, and I'd call that high praise.

The cast is exceptional and the chemistry is evident. The film opens with Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) interviewing Gus Lacey (one of my favorite character actors, Stephen Root, who also shared the screen with Clooney in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and is perhaps most famous as Milton from "Office Space"), who claims to have psychic powers. Soon after, he finds himself in Kuwait, trying to make a big name for himself as a war correspondent. It's there that he meets Lyn Cassady (Clooney) who admits that he and Lacey were both products of a secret government program to train an army of "Jedi Warriors." The references to "Star Wars" including terms such as "Jedi" and "The Dark Side" draw laughs as McGregor plays the uninitiated perfectly. Lyn's superior officer in the "Army of Light" was Bill Django (Bridges), who feels familiar as a Vietnam veteran turn hippie-soldier with a touch of Jeff Lebowski. Flashbacks tell the tale of how they trained together, where Django's peaceful warrior techniques honed Cassady's natural skills. Both found themselves out of the Army by the 1980s, mostly through the manipulations of Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey) who was also part of the "Army of Light." The training scenes are very funny, as the psychics attempt to will themselves to pass through walls, engage in remote viewing (a kind of extra sensory perception), predict the contents of closed boxes and, yes, stare at goats until the animal's heart stops.

Hooper testifies against Django when one of the other soldiers flips out after being dosed with LSD by Hooper himself and goes on a shooting spree at the base, ending in the soldier committing suicide. The timing of this scene could not be more unfortunate. Grant Heslov certainly couldn't have predicted the events that occurred at Fort Hood just the day before the film's release. I can't help but wonder if this scene won't be cut at some point. Cassady quits the Army on his own after he realizes the Army is interested in the combat application of staring someone to death. In the present, Wilton and Cassady barely manage to survive their trek into Iran on a mission Cassady only ever hints at. Their misadventures reminded me a bit of the "Brian and Stewie road trip" episodes of Family Guy, without the duets. They narrowly avoid getting shot, blown up, or killed by the unforgiving desert. Eventually, the odd pair find themselves at a U.S. Army base where Cassady is reunited with Hooper and Django. Cassady discovers that there are prisoners of war being tortured by subjecting them to a 24 hour loop of Barney the Dinosaur singing "I Love You." There is also a pen of goats, presumably to continue the heart-stopping experiments Cassady was once a part of. Wilton and Django get the whole camp high on LSD, and along with Cassady they liberate the prisoners and the goats.

There's a short epilogue scene that I won't ruin for you, but it's a fantastic way to close the tale. I sincerely hope that my fellow film reviewers will refrain from such declarations as "It's the best Coen Brothers film not directed by the Coens." Let it be simply one of hopefully many fun, quirky films by Grant Heslov. I also hope that the similarities between the shooting spree in the film and the reality of Fort Hood don't create a backlash against the film. As I said before, it's just poor luck that an offbeat scene in an offbeat movie would suddenly be reflected in a horrific real-life event.