Syriana
That writer-director Stephen Gaghan’s provocative expose on the modern-day oil business doesn’t match up with the emotional wallop of Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar-winning drug war drama “Traffic” says more about Soderbergh’s talents as a filmmaker- he deservedly won an Oscar for “Traffic,” and has been challenging himself since his 1989 film “sex, lies & videotape”- than Gaghan’s; this is only his second as a director- “Traffic” was Soderbergh’s tenth. Plus, Gaghan expertly wrote both films- and also won an Oscar for “Traffic”- and you can’t knock a guy for ambition, and “Syriana” does indeed have that.
Inspired by the 2002 memoir “See No Evil” by ex-CIA man Robert Baer, but fictionalizing the character-studded story and turning it into a heated political thriller, Gaghan creates- as he did with “Traffic”- a wide-reaching story that explores several aspects of the oil industry with equal intelligence and fascination. The story is set in motion by CIA agent Bob Barnes (George Clooney’s rarely been better, complimenting his earlier triumph of “Good Night, and Good Luck” with a fighter’s spirit; expect Oscar to call this year, George), on a clandestine arms sale in Iran when one of the weapons he’s selling goes off- killing two of the buyers- while the other one goes missing. The agency’s not happy about the mishap, but they nonetheless give him another job in the region when they assign him to overlook the assassination of an Arab Prince after he signed an oil deal with the Chinese over an American company. Forget that we see- in the second significant storyline in this multi-layered tapestry- that Prince Nasir (the excellent Alexander Saddig, who also triumphed earlier this year in another culture clash provocation, Ridley Scott’s underrated “Kingdom of Heaven”)- as he tells his new financial consultant, energy analyst Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon, bringing equal ambiguity and charisma to the role), whose son accidentally died at a dinner party the Prince held- has dreams of using his new oil deal to maybe turn his country into a fledging democracy; if it interferes with American economic concerns in the region, it must be taken care of. Meanwhile, the oil company passed over for the deal- the fictional Connex- is trying to close a merger/takeover of a much smaller company- the also fictional Killen, run by Texas businessman Jimmy Pope (Chris Cooper), and defended in front of Congress by Danny Dalton (the effectively sleazy Tim Blake Nelson)- when Connex’s lawfirm- headed by a power-drunk boss played by Christopher Plummer- is having to investigate them when it looks like some shady deals took place to make the merger possible. Heading the research is Bennett Holiday (the brilliant Jeffrey Wright, with just the right blend of conflict and conviction for the conflicted role), who knows what’s politically smart, but also hopes to do something that’s morally right in the process. And I haven’t even mentioned the emotionally-bruised wife (played with force and feeling by Amanda Peet) Bryan disturbs further with his talk of how dealing with Prince Nasir will be akin to having an ATM on their front lawn or the young Arab who’s seduced by Islamic fundamentalism when he and his father are fired from Connex when the Chinese take over.
As he did with “Traffic,” Gaghan- aided by a moody, propulsive score by Alexandre Desplat- asks difficult moral questions in “Syriana” that no film can provide easy answers for. But unlike “Traffic” (which at least found solace in some of its’ painful stories), there’s little hope for the future in the final scenes, where the characters must look themselves in the mirror at the corruption and greed they’ve helped fuel, for lack of a better term, with no way of turning back the clock. Like the best cinematic political hot cakes, “Syriana” doesn’t back away from hard truths, and is intended to shake you to the core and force some tough questions out of you. Mission accomplished.
