November 10, 2009
Review: The Men Who Stare At Goats
Everyone Should Stop Misusing the Word 'Hilarious'
I've complained before about lack of truth in comedy advertising. We have yet another case on our hands with The Men Who Stare At Goats (fondly known on the web as TMWS@G). The ads treat this as a 'hilarious' comedy, which it's not. It's more of a darkly absurd comedy, incoroporating elements of Dr. Strangelove, The Big Lebowski, and other such exercises in the weird, macabre, and "not sure whether to believe it or not" genres.
The movie begins with journalist Bob Wilton (Ewan MacGregor) embarking on a quest for glory. After his wife leaves him for his editor, Wilton decides he needs to go to Iraq to prove his masculinity (the movie takes place during the war). In Kuwait he runs into retired sergeant Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) who agrees to bring him into Iraq. On their trip, Wilton learns about Cassady's experiences in the New Earth Army, a military initiative started by Bill Django (Jeff Bridges) but sabotaged by one of its own trainess, the bitter Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey).
Basically, this movie operates along the lines of most buddy films (Cassady and Wilton encountering a series of strange situations) but uses flashbacks to incorporate the backstory of the rise and fall of the New Earth Army. Some of the humor comes from the buddy-style interaction, but much of it depends on the idiocy of the real army (the Strangelovian element), the absurdity of the New Earth Army (which incorporates New Age hippie techniques with attempts to develop the psychic abilities of its members), and a generally cynical view of the world at large.
It's true that the storyline meanders a bit. That said, the movie succeeds on the strength of its performances. It's only a little odd because you feel like you've seen many of them before. Clooney, as one reviewer already pointed out, has the Clark Gable thing down pat by now. Bridges is playing a Lebowski-esque character, hair and all, but that's perfectly enjoyable to watch. And Kevin Spacey does a fantastic job making Hooper a thoroughly unlikeable slimeball.
I enjoyed this movie, and would give it a solid B (mostly, it needed editing). But it's not a comedy of the 'hilarious' sort. True to generic form, its dark untertones are balanced by a happy, if bizarre, ending. My viewing companion was more on the fence than I was, opining that it wasn't as funny as she'd expected. Hence the need for truth in advertising.
So consider yourselves warned: this movie is more about telling its strange story and less about being a laugh-a-minute comedy. Furthermore, don't expect to see Clooney doing Hamlet -- not that I've heard anyone claiming the actors' performances break new ground, but that seems like the sort of thing people complain about. To me, familiarity is fine, and overall this is an entertaining, and sometimes thought-provoking, movie. It even has a little political satire for those who want it.
In fact, I think that TMWS@G is just one more indication that comedies are heading in a weirder and more serio-comic direction. Many I've seen recently (I Love You, Phillip Morris, Extract, Serious Moonlight) forecast a darker comedic landscape than we've seen for a while. It makes sense that the pendulum is swinging back after a few years of Apatow supremacy and frankly, I'm all for it. Laugh-out-loud hilarity is fun, to be sure, but there's room for a whole spectrum of humor in the world, and we shouldn't punish comedies for failing to live up to a single-dimension definition of what's funny. But still, let's not use 'hilarious' where it doesn't apply, 'K?
