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Critics Consensus: Ambitious, complicated, intellectual, and demanding of its audience, Syriana is both a gripping geopolitical thriller and wake-up call to the complacent.
Critic Consensus: Ambitious, complicated, intellectual, and demanding of its audience, Syriana is both a gripping geopolitical thriller and wake-up call to the complacent.
All Critics (196) | Top Critics (47) | Fresh (142) | Rotten (54) | DVD (16)
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.
Its dark, dog-eat-dog vision of the world we live in may give you geopolitical nightmares.
It's entirely possible that Gaghan just isn't an actor's director.
Syriana impresses, not because it is very moving, which it isn't, or because it is crystal clear, which it also isn't, but because it is so large, so encompassing, so seemingly privy to inside stuff.
Watch closely and listen carefully during Syriana because Stephen Gaghan's movie is that rarity: a thinking person's drama.
It's hard to get passionately swept away by a movie when you're struggling continually to figure out who's doing what to whom and why.
Syriana is an American movie that reaches out beyond itself. Watching it made me feel hopeful -- a rare sensation in a cinema.
... If you can avoid getting too hung up on the details, Syriana is a brave attempt to blitz the goody-baddy dynamics of cold-war film-making and concentrate on the ambiguities of modern geopolitics.
A skeleton of theme minus the meat of resonance
A film that treats its audience as adults, this is an extremely rewarding work that handsomely pays off the concentration required to watch it.
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.
Probes a significant subject but treats its people as mere stick figures carrying exposition from place to place.
Syriana is not a film for everyone. It requires the audience to be extremely attentive, and may even require multiple viewings to be able to fully understand who is doing what, where they're doing it, and why they're doing it. The plot is so complicated and ambitious that at the beginning I found myself frustrated and annoyed that I didn't get it and that it was moving at such a slow pace. There are also multiple plot lines that never really have anything to do with each other except that the actions of one affects one of the other plot lines thus altering the outcome. But all these quibbles put aside, Syriana is a wake-up call to people who think everything is going well in the oil sectors of the world, it's got this docu-drama feel to it, and it rings true in every sense. George Clooney stands out amidst an outstanding cast. I think I'd need to see it again, and pay much closer attention to be able to fully comprehend and understand what was going on. Definitely go see Syriana, but see it when you are awake and prepared to pay attention.
Super Reviewer
An exhilirating movie that is fun to watch and interesting to think about. Clooney steals the show.
"Syriana" is a rubrics cube of a film and like a rubrics cube, it can be maddening, unassuming and unsatisfying. But also like the game, "Syriana" can be immensely rewarding if given the proper attention. "Syriana" is not a film for everyone, hell, it's not even a film for most fans of "Traffic" (Stephen Gagan's other complicated screenplay about an endless geopolitical issue). I read in a review that "Syriana" is like trying to follow four separate chess games at once and I believe that to be extremely accurate. The characters in the film are 'professional liars' as one puts it, making it extremely hard to track their actions, but it's in that intense conflict where "Syriana" is it's most gripping. Figuring out who is connected to who (hint, they are all connected) and tracing how the smallest decisions can lead to death is fascinating. Everything about the film rings true, from the dialogue, to the locations, to the interactions. I also was really taken in by the themes of family. "Syriana" also works as an epic family crime saga. I use the term loosely because 'families' can be created on a whim in this film. It's interesting to see how the oil business (or epidemic? or addiction?) can corrupt every aspect of a (born or self made) family. Special note should be paid to the actors with George Clooney (in an Oscar winning role), Matt Damon and Christopher Plummer standing out. What solidifies "Syriana" as the defining political thriller of the 00s is Robert Elswit's (my favorite DP) cinematography. He makes the film cohesive when it seems as if it's going to fly off the rails. "Syriana" is a film we really don't see made anyone, a political thriller that zeros in a situation rather than a person to make a statement about a problem.
Syriana is a top notch, exhilarating political thriller film. Loosely based on the political memoir of ex CIA operative Robert Baer, See No Evil; Syriana takes a look at the impact of the oil industry as two important oil companies seek to merge in a new deal. What becomes of this merger unfolds into multiple subplots to the main story. Syriana's plot is riveting and multi layered, and is very complex. Some viewers will be confused while watching the film. I've seen this film at least five times, and I'm only now making sense of things happening on screen. Syriana is a pulse pounding thriller with non stop thrills and suspense. The cast delivers strong performances here. Most notably Chris Cooper and Jeffrey Wright. I know I didn't mention the films biggest stars, but I found these two actors to deliver some of the best and most intriguing performances of the film. George Clooney as well delivered, but to me, Chris Cooper really shined in this film, but I find that Cooper and Wright delivered the most blistering performances. In fact the entire cast was great here, but those two actors really brought the best out of this film. Syriana is a top notch political Thriller. I however cannot recommend this film to everyone as it's highly complex and it's very hard to understand as there are three subplots to the main story. Whatever your personal stance on this film, Syriana is a bold and powerful film that if you're interested in such subjects will definitely leave you in awe. This is the best political Thriller of recent memory and may be the best of 'its kind. Read Robert Baer's book See No Evil as well.
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