The Men Who Stare at Goats

THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS is silly and I chuckled all the way through it. 

Here’s the premise: Ewan McGregor is an Ann Arbor newspaper reporter whose life is going nowhere.  He’s stuck interviewing crackpots like some guy who claims to have been part of a secret Army psychic warrior corps.  His wife left him.  He needs a change.

History gives him one when America invades Iraq.  Eager for a story, any story, MacGregor flies to Kuwait where … he … goes … nowhere.  Then he meets George Clooney, who professes to be a member of the same psychic warrior corps Crackpot McCrazy talked about back home.  Clooney’s on a mission into Iraq, and MacGregor comes with him.  Oh, yeah, there’s a problem: Clooney gives every indication of being nuts.

And we’re off.  THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS spends the next hour and a half going from MacGregor’s adventures in the present day to recounting the history of the New Earth Army, a supersecret band of psychic warriors who call themselves Jedi Warriors and follow their leader, Jeff Bridges in full hippie mode, to the edges of perception, ability, and credulity.  But could the New Earth Army still be around, working in Iraq?  Does MacGregor have what it takes to become a Jedi Warrior?  And what’s the point in sitting around and staring at goats, anyway?

OK, so I’ve just spent three paragraphs recapping the picture, which makes for a super-lazy review.  Shut it.  This stuff is free.

Anyway, THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS works because it embraces the silliness of its premise while playing it absolutely straight.  Clooney really believes he has amazing psychic powers.  Bridges creates the most earnest hippie colonel in the history of the United States Army.  And MacGregor, well, if anyone deserves to become a Jedi Warrior, it’s this guy.  Have fun.