SYRI-YAWN-A

It' s beautiful fall day. Too beautiful to waste it watching SYRIANA (2005). I gave this film one hour and turned it off. I had no idea what was going on in this convoluted and snail paced "thriller". Something to do with a merger between two American oil companies, middle east terrorists, a CIA assassin and an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. George Clooney won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of a CIA operative. I kept watching, thinking that any minute now, in the next scene maybe, surely the pieces of this puzzle will start to come together and make sense. Are any of these various characters ever going to meet? Do any of the multiple storylines ever converge? Who cares?

SYRIANA is an unmitigated mess of a film and it's hard to believe that it got made with such high profile talent attached to it. I can usually make it through even the worst of movies (and lord knows, I've watched a lot of low budget trash over the years) until the bitter end but this? A major motion picture from a big Hollywood studio? Absolutely impossible to figure out what's going on and where the story (if you can call it that) is headed.

 I'm going outside for some fresh air.