Movie Review: Comic political satire great ride for George Clooney

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Published: November 6, 2009

Not since Cary Grant has an actor of A-list leading man looks and stature been more game for playing the hapless screwball in absurd situations than George Clooney — or as good at it.

George Clooney stars in Overture Films' The Men Who Stare at Goats'

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"The Men Who Stare at Goats”

R

1:33

3½ stars

Starring: George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, Robert Patrick, Stephen Root, Stephen Lang, Rebecca Mader.

(Language, some drug content and brief nudity)

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He did it twice for the Coen brothers, in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and "Burn After Reading,” and now does his most hilarious turn yet as a "psychic warrior” working for an experimental U.S. military unit in director Grant Heslov’s "The Men Who Stare at Goats.” He’s a little scary, too, which makes Clooney a perfect fit as the protagonist in this Peter Straughan screenplay that’s inspired by Jon Ronson’s nonfiction book about the government’s secret efforts to harness paranormal powers to combat its enemies.

"More of this is true than what you might imagine,” reads the disclaimer at the beginning of this outrageous satire, which seems to bolster the widely held suspicion that crackpots and crazies drive this country’s clandestine machine.

Reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), nursing a broken heart after his wife leaves him for his editor, sets off for Iraq at the beginning of the war in order to prove to his ex that he’s not a wimp. There he runs into Lyn "Skip” Cassady (Clooney), who claims to be part of the "New Earth Army,” a force of supposedly psychic soldiers — or "Jedi Warriors” as they like to call themselves — tasked with devising new, nondestructive methods of warfare through mind control.

These "Warrior Monks” — as they also call themselves — are allegedly capable of reading the enemy’s thoughts, passing through walls, becoming invisible and seeing activity in distant locales through "remote viewing.” And, oh yes, Skip can kill a goat simply by staring at it really hard.

The group was founded by Skip’s teacher, the legendary Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), who gained his telepathic powers years ago after falling out of a helicopter in Vietnam. Now Django is missing, Skip has entered Iraq determined to track down his guru, and Bob tags along for the ride of his life, constantly fascinated by Skip’s flaky behavior, wild claims and reckless decision-making that leads to getting them blown up, kidnapped, lost in the desert and locked in a surrealistic showdown with Skip’s longtime, resentful rival, Larry Hooper (a deliciously despicable Kevin Spacey), who’s pulled a treacherous takeover of the "psi-ops” program.

It’s all played mainly for laughs but with the kind of subversive political edge and touch of darkness Clooney often favors in his projects. The story is, after all, based on real experiments conducted by the Army and CIA in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.

The truth here is that Bridges is beautiful as the new age hippie mind master who teaches tough-trained grunts to dance, smell the flowers and open their heads. He comes off as a serenely brain-damaged version of The Dude. And Clooney is a riot as the paranoid paranormal, turning in his best broad, brave, batty comic performance since "O Brother’s” Ulysses Everett McGill.

And that’s no goat cheese.

— Gene Triplett