Movie review: Syriana

Food: reese's bites, buttered popcorn. Reese's bites aren't as good as the cups.

Syriana...geez, if you liked Traffic, you'll like it. If you didn't, or you prefer linear film structure, you probably won't like it. If you like happy closure you'll hate it.

I loved it. Biggest complaint I've heard is that it's too complex. Wasn't a problem for me. There are four intertwined stories: a CIA agent, an energy trader, a DC lawyer, and a young Pakistani. All around the oil rights to a massive field in the middle east (country, unnamed, one can assume is the Syriana of the title).

Nobody is all good. Some have good intentions. Some don't. There's a guy who plays the mandatory evil oil executive (well, one of them) who looks an awful lot like Tom DeLay. He doesn't have good intentions.

More than anything, it felt like a morality play. This is where the gas that runs the SUVs comes from, and this is the real price. The young Pakistani loses his job due to a merger back in the states, gets savagely beaten in line by local military (non US) and becomes a radical Muslim. The imams give him food and brainwashing and a sense of self respect. The scene where he's shoveling food into his mouth with a broken face hit me hard. This was the storyline that really, really connected it all. The rest of the stories are well written and brilliantly acted for the most part. There's a hideous torture scene that I had some trouble watching (yes, I'm a wimp when it comes to ripping nails out). But it's that young guy in my head still, not Clooney or Damon.

Screenplay by the same guy who did Traffic, who added director this time. I didn't think it was quite as well cut and directed as Traffic but Soderbergh is a great, great director. I would have loved to have seen his take on this. The colors were not quite as bright as in other desert films like Three Kings, or the desert scenes in Traffic.

Still and all, one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Depressing as hell in many ways. Only a few bad guys go down and a hell of a lot of bad guys win. But it moved me and made me think. That's a good thing.