Syriana

When charismatic, reform-minded Gulf Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig), acting on the advice of energy analyst Bryan Woodman (Damon), grants the natural gas drilling rights to the Chinese instead of the already established American company Connex, it sparks a chain of events that will change all involved. Connex, owned by Jimmy Pope (Cooper), has recently acquired desirable oil fields in Kazakhstan and is about to merge with another company, Killeen - a merger that is brought to the attention of the Justice Department, resulting in attorney Bennet Holiday (Wright) being sent to investigate. Behind the scenes, Bob Barnes (Clooney), a CIA agent at the latter end of his career, is sent to avert the assassination of Nasir whose brother will return the drilling rights to America if made King. All the while, two disillusioned Palestinian men are trained as terrorists to take out the money-grabbing American companies.

There is something blacker than oil stirring in mainstream Hollywood releases of late; Fun With Dick And Jane poked the ribs of Bush's economy and Goodnight, and Good Luck side-swiped at the lack of civil liberties Americans have suffered post 9-11. Now Syriana's comments on the Machiavellian dealings of America's oil giants in the Middle East cements the notion that some members of Tinseltown actually have a conscience. Syriana and Goodnight, and Good Luck were both produced by Steven Soderbergh's Section Eight company; Gaghan wrote Traffic for Soderbergh and obviously paid attention on set as Syriana owes a lot in terms of the mood, tone and washed out documentary style of that film. Coming across like The West Wing for the oil business, Syriana doesn't pander to the audience and asks them to keep up with the story - it is up to the viewer to pay attention to the blink-and-you'll-miss-it vital info. Multi-narrative plots have the usual habit of stretching the characters too thin but, as with last year's Crash, Syriana shows how it can be done, tying all strands together with a snap-snap-snap cutting style. All the performances are top notch as everyone tries to match, but never outshine, their co-stars, but the most interesting thing about Syriana is its treatment of the stereotypical notions of Muslim terrorists; here the cursing, drinking and even blasphemous pair are presented as disillusioned men rather than blood-thirsty Allah-praising mindless killers. Gaghan is one of the first to say that their point of view is not only valid, but important.