A film that treats its audience as adults, this is an extremely rewarding work that handsomely pays off the concentration required to watch it.
Syriana (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:189
Fresh:137
Rotten:52
Average Rating:6.9/10
Consensus: Ambitious, complicated, intellectual, and demanding of its audience, Syriana is both a gripping geopolitical thriller and wake-up call to the complacent.
Theatrical Release:03-03-2006
Synopsis: Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for best screenplay for TRAFFIC, makes his directorial debut with SYRIANA, an espionage thriller set in the Middle East. George Clooney stars as Bob Barnes, a... Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for best screenplay for TRAFFIC, makes his directorial debut with SYRIANA, an espionage thriller set in the Middle East. George Clooney stars as Bob Barnes, a longtime CIA agent preparing to slow down his life and spend more time with his teenage son (Max Minghella). But his last secret mission, getting rid of Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig), turns out to be more complicated than he imagined, placing him in the middle of a dangerous conspiracy involving government corruption, oil, and international terrorism. Matt Damon, who starred with Clooney in OCEAN'S ELEVEN and OCEAN'S TWELVE (and made a cameo in Clooney's CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND, which was also about spies and conspiracies), plays Bryan Woodman, an energy executive whose ethics become vulnerable after the horrific loss of one of his sons. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., lawyers Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) and Dean Whiting (Christopher Plummer) also must choose between the government's special interests and what's best for the world (as well as their own special interests). Gaghan gives SYRIANA a documentary-like feel, using handheld cameras and shooting on location, adding to the believability of the complex plot. To heighten the realism, Clooney learned to speak Arabic and even put on 30 pounds for the role. A fast-paced, heart-pounding, relentless film, SYRIANA was inspired by the true story of former CIA agent Robert Baer, told in his book SEE NO EVIL: THE TRUE STORY OF A GROUND SOLDIER IN THE CIA'S WAR ON TERRORISM. [More]
Starring: George Clooney, Amanda Peet, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright
Starring: George Clooney, Amanda Peet, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Plummer, Alexander Siddig, Daisy Torme, Peter Gerety
Director: Stephen Gaghan
Director: Stephen Gaghan
Screenwriter: Stephen Gaghan
Producer: Jennifer Fox, Michael Nozik
Composer: Alexandre Desplat
Studio: Warner Bros.
Reviews for Syriana
In addition to the performances there's a wealth of memorable detail.
Demanding, even confusing at times, this is required viewing that requires your full attention.
There is a weird absence of both dramatic heat and political light here.
[Syriana] fulfils all the key criteria of a decent political thriller - it'll make you angry, it'll make you think and it'll scare the hell out of you.
Gaghan's script wisely sticks to the human story as things twist and turn.
This is intelligent, committed, and politically provocative, though its narrative puzzle box may prompt you to throw up your hands and let ExxonMobil go on running the world.
You didn't understand all of it? It went by too fast to take it all in? There was too much information to mentally digest? Yeah, well, that was kind of the point.
Its dark, dog-eat-dog vision of the world we live in may give you geopolitical nightmares.
Probes a significant subject but treats its people as mere stick figures carrying exposition from place to place.
Evidently, such matters of thematic coherence, so well explored by Gaghan in Traffic, were not as important to him this time around, and it's a mistake.
Preferring probing questions to pat solutions, the film drills deep in its exploration of the US's ventures, both economic and military, in the Middle East.
The most troublesome part of Syriana is that the movie is, in fact, so easy to believe.
Gaghan kapitulira pred holivudskim konvencijama te film zaklju%u010Duje spektakularnom, ali banalnom i krajnje neuvjerljivom zavr%u0161nicom
Politically-paranoid, if well-intentioned, this disjointed message movie doesn't really do much more than indict the usual suspects.
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