Syriana

I like politics and so I went into Syriana expecting to like it a lot but I ended up being a little disappointed. Syriana is about the geopolitics of the oil industry. George Clooney and Matt Damon were both good and there were a lot of gripping scenes, interesting moments, and some insight into the way the oil companies and governments all tussle behind closed doors. While it’s not a bad movie but it didn’t really all come together for me. Writer / director Steven Gaghan wrote the screenplay for Traffic and I was reminded of Traffic a lot as we switch from location to location and character to character. Oil sheiks holding a party in Spain to a Washington D.C. lawyer to a terrorist training camp to somewhere else and someone else and then some other people in other places and oh look, it’s someone I recognize from a few scenes ago, I think. I’m fine with all of that thread weaving but in the end I really want a satisifying conclusion and there just wasn’t one.