Syriana.

So, we took Seth with us to see Syriana last night. The movie started out on an interesting note, but got increasingly muddled over time. Seth and I thought it was far too drawn out without making the point that you could easily guess was coming. We left the theater before the ending, mainly because we were already at the two hour mark and the movie wasn’t really going anywhere, or, maybe just taking waaaaaaaaay too long to get where it was going. There was no real protagonist (or maybe one too many), and the plot was too convoluted. I came home feeling bad for leaving early, especially since it was a movie about the middle east. So, I looked up what other people had to say about it, wondering if it was just me. Well, it’s a New York Times critic’s pick, but the New Yorker did a pretty good of summing up how I felt about the movie.

It was directed by Stephan Gaghan, the same guy who did Traffic. I really liked that movie, and while complex, with multiple threads running simultaneously through that film, too, it was much more cohesive and coherent.

What I did really like about this movie were the intriguing, but-disappointedly-far-too-undeveloped-glimpses into the development of a suicide bomber. I wish he would have focused more on that. As it was, Syriana lacked any real focal point at all. IMO, of course. But Will liked it. He would have stayed, but he was tired (we went to the late, late show) and I was having a hard time staying awake for the whole thing. Not unusual for me, as those of you who know me well can attest. 🙂