The Men Who Stare At Goats Review

With just the little-seen golfing comedy Par 6 (2002) to his name, Grant Heslov has minimal experience in the director's chair. But his second film, The Men Who Stare At Goats, is an impressive, thought-provoking comedy. Of course, it helps that Heslov's lead is George Clooney - his friend, partner in production company Smoke House and co-writer on Good Night, And Good Luck. As was the case with Clooney and Steven Soderbergh before, here they hint at what a fruitful partnership could evolve in years to come.

Officially, the film is loosely inspired by British journalist Jon Ronson's book, which accompanied Channel 4's 2004 three-part documentary 'Crazy Rulers Of The World', which followed up some of the US military's more out-there ways of going about their business. But while the film begins with the caption, "More of this is true than you would believe", it's fair to say that screenwriter Peter Straughan has taken more than a pinch of dramatic licence here.

Straughan, as it turns out, in an inspired choice, having already adapted Toby Young's factual memoir How To Lose Friends And Alienate People for the screen. Replacing Ronson as the eyes of the audience is Ewan McGregor's local Michigan-based journalist, Bob Wilton, who decides after splitting from his unfaithful partner to hot-foot it to Iraq and find a story. Arriving in 2003 in Kuwait City, he bumps into Clooney, who initially claims to be Skip, an Arkansas trashcan salesman.

It soon emerges, however, that he is Lyn Cassady - a former star pupil in a US military special outfit who has been reactivated for a secret mission to Iraq. As flashbacks begin to unveil his backstory, we learn that Cassady was one of a group of 'psychic spies' in what was called the New Earth Army, the brainchild of a Vietnam veteran-turned-hippie called Bill Django (Jeff Bridges). Formed 20 years ago, after Django wrote the unit's LSD-fuelled manual, the idea behind it is to recruit men to develop actual super powers to combat the enemy.

Cue some pretty amusing scenes, which also explain the film's title (as one of Cassady's more notorious tricks was to be able to stare at a goat until its heart stopped). An open-mouthed Wilton learns much of this along the way, after petitioning Cassady to let him come along on his mission. And with Heslov cutting in past events, we accompany Cassady and Wilton as they get lost in the desert, attacked by terrorists and eventually head back towards the mission.