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With an impressive cast including George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor and Kevin Spacey, one would think “The Men Who Stare at Goats” would be a movie watcher’s delight. However, the film’s messy narrative spoils the potential of this ensemble.
This ludicrous war film chronicles the New Earth Army — an army outfit made to create “Warrior Monks” or “Jedi” types of soldiers that can psychically locate people and objects, predict the future and even walk through walls.
The movie is based on the book of the same title by Joe Ronson, who wrote it about his investigations into U.S. military’s attempts to use psychic powers in the 1980s. Jeff Bridges plays hippie leader Bill Django of the New Earth Army, who created the program from spiritual enlightenment after a near-death experience in Vietnam. It’s good to see Bridges don the hippie role again after The Big Lebowski.
The film cuts between flashbacks of the New Earth Army and scenes with Bob Wilton, a journalist played by Ewan McGregor following Lyn Cassady, the program’s most gifted psychic played by George Clooney. It tells of Cassady’s adventures during his post-New Earth Army days in Iraq as he tries to find Django, who was involved with the conflict between Iraq and Kuwait in 1991.
The problem with director Grant Heslov’s “Goats” is plot and story. “Goats” seems to be more concerned with weaving together irrelevant comical moments instead of developing an intriguing premise. Characters are introduced and soon forgotten. Transitions between key plot points, even though the plot is muddled, seem to be always accompanied by a ’70s rock song.
You feel as frustrated and lost as Wilton does as he follows Cassady’s tirades through the desert. The film’s flashbacks bring down the narrative drive and fail to comment adequately on the present dilemma of the characters, which is unclear in itself.
George Clooney’s performance is entertaining but strained by the limits of the script as the limited plot hinders the audience’s investment in his character. However, Cassady’s persistent belief in his psychic powers makes for an amusing trip. Cassady is so absorbed by the illusion that you begin to think it might be real after all. Clooney’s zany performance is reminiscent of other desert wanderers such as Johnny Depp in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”
Kevin Spacey stands as the most entertaining of characters as he plays a humorous, indifferent psychic soldier trying to foil Bridges’ character.
The film works if you accept it for what it is. Heslov’s “Goats” stands as a mish-mash of moments, but they all aim to capture a series of characters confronted with a fantasy world which is only as real as they are willing to believe. The film sets out to make audiences believe in things beyond rationality in the most absurd of ways. At the end, you question the absurdity of the film.
Grade: C
