The Men Who Stare at Goats

Credit Heslov with knowing how to choose his friends. He’s been palling around with Clooney since the 1980s, and Heslov has a writing credit on Good Night, and Good Luck and producing credits on that and several other Clooney films. We’re not saying Heslov isn’t talented; for all we know he wrote all the best stuff in Good Night, and Good Luck. But as a director, he’s a relative newbie, with only a few shorts and a little TV work under his belt. That hasn’t prepared him to tackle material with the tricky tonal difficulties built into The Men Who Stare at Goats.

Loosely (very loosely) based on a loose-limbed work of nonfiction by journalist Jon Ronson, the film tells the tale of journalist Bob Wilton (McGregor, trying valiantly to be convincing as a Midwesterner), who goes to Iraq to prove his manhood. In a bar in Kuwait, he befriends Lyn Cassady (Clooney), a guy with a thousand-yard stare and a hell of a tale to tell. Cassady claims to have been part of a U.S. Army experiment in psychic warfare. While Cassady and Wilton go on a comical journey into Iraq that, at times, feels like Ishtar crossed with The In-Laws, we get the story of Bill Django (Bridges), the soldier-turned-guru who led the unit dedicated to out-there stuff like “remote viewing.” Peter Straughan’s screenplay throws in weird mood changes and an unearned message that leave Heslov struggling to keep up. He’s not terrible, and neither is the movie, but it’s not the wacky romp it tries to be.

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