Syriana

Macey and I joined in the busy experience of going to the cinema in Paris last weekend (the French really love their cinema - I was impressed) to see George Clooney's pound-putting-on, Oscar-winning performance in Syriana. It's an interesting movie. I use that terrible word, because it's a film that's easier to admire than love.

I like what they're trying to do with the story but there were a few problems. It suffers from the usual problem that ensenble films face where you have to try to keep track of multiple characters with (often) multiple story lines. But in addition Syriana's stories tended to be complicated, and I wonder how much of what might have helped me follow it better ended up on the editing room floor. It was a real mental exercise keeping track of everything and trying to follow the unnecessarily complex plot, and it didn't help that a good bit of the movie had conversations in various Middle Eastern and South Asian languages, which being in France, had French subtitles (and French is not my strong point!).

Oh well, one to hire when it comes out on DVD to try to work it out and see if really is the great film people are making it out to be. For the record, Clooney is good in it.