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'Syriana' weaves an intricate web of intrigue

The Oscar race gets serious with "Syriana," a gripping and daringly complex movie about How Things Get Done these days in the blood-drenched world of oil, politics and religion.

The producer is George Clooney (who also co-stars), and this film, coupled with "Good Night and Good Luck" (which he directed), makes him Hollywood's undisputed standard bearer for liberal causes and themes. And Clooney doesn't wait for an awards-show pulpit; he's figured out how to make important movies to make his views known.

Warner Brothers Pictures 'Syriana' A- The verdict: Cynical, explosive and smart, smart, smart. Director: Stephen Gaghan Starring: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Amanda Peet, Chris Cooper, Tim Blake Nelson Run time: 123 minutes Release date: Nov. 23, 2005 Rating: R for violence and language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Syriana'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

"Syriana" weaves an intricate web of political intrigue and international economics that spans three continents and at least four story lines.

In one, Clooney lets his hair go grizzled, grows a beard and puts on a Method gut straight out of the De Niro playbook. He plays Bob Barnes, a 21-year CIA veteran whose experience and expertise are a liability in a brave new world of watch-your-back management. "You just don't get it," a colleague says when Barnes reports an agency-sponsored weapons exchange gone bad. "Nobody wants to hear about a missing missile."

Meanwhile, in Switzerland, Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon), a telegenic energy analyst, makes a very personal blood-for-oil exchange. He's hired by Kazakhstan's progressive but pragmatic Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig), who feels guilty about a tragedy that struck the Woodman family. Bryan's wife (Amanda Peet) is horrified.

Back in the U.S.A., spiffy D.C. lawyer Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright) finds himself in an ethical dilemma when he's asked to shepherd a shady merger between two oil companies past government watchdogs.

Finally, there's Wasim Khan (Mazhar Munir), a charming but rootless young Pakistani. A victim of the merger's ripple effect, he finds himself jobless, penniless, disenfranchised — and a prime target for a smoothie recruiting suicide bombers.

Get ready to get lost at some point in "Syriana." That's how dense the film's maze of plot twists and layers of characters are. But rest assured: The movie was written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for his similarly intertwined script for "Traffic." You may not be with him every step of the way, but he makes sure you're up to speed when the crucial down-and-dirty realpolitiks go down and the dicier character choices are made.

"Syriana" is even a better film than "Traffic," which used the drug trade the way this picture uses the bubbling crude crisis. Gaghan eschews the color-coded showiness of the earlier film, and there's none of the overemoting that marred the plot about Michael Douglas and his addict daughter.

Rather, Gaghan often leaves it to the actors to make his points, and his ensemble cast never strikes a false note. In a role that could put him in contention for best supporting actor, Christopher Plummer is splendid, giving us the silken egocentricity and plummy arrogance of a Beltway insider ("In this town, you're innocent until investigated," he likes to say.)

As a wily Ted Turner-ish oil maverick, Chris Cooper is part frontiersman, part corporate wild card — Davy Crockett with an impressive portfolio.

Siddig, who has the presence of a young Omar Sharif, and Akbar Kurtha, as his wastrel I'll-take-the redhead-and-both-blondes brother, are utterly convincing as siblings on very different roads.

Damon's boyish likability is put to insidious use while Wright is credibly tempted by the cigars and brandy of Washington's inner circle. And Clooney, bless him, doesn't let his tummy do all the acting. There's a seen-it-all weariness in his eyes, a ragged honor in his refusal to play by the new rules.

Yet beneath the socio-political-economic gamesmanship, "Syriana" is also a story of fathers and sons. Damon and his delightful little boy. Clooney and his disillusioned college-age son. Siddig and Kurtha, both jockeying for their father's blessing — and crown.

Wright leaves the seductive corridors of power to find his elderly alcoholic dad (William C. Mitchell) sitting on the doorstep of his swank Georgetown residence, a reminder of a past he'd rather leave behind. And Munir succumbs to false promises of "paradise" as his aged father makes do with the same raw deal he's gotten for decades (and, by implication, centuries).

The sins of the fathers are indeed visited upon the sons in "Syriana." And vice versa. No matter how sophisticated our technology, our weapons or our manipulation of images and ethics, we are all reduced to the same ancient blood feuds, the same tainted dreams of power, the same tattered hopefulness.

In "Syriana's" reality — where a butterfly flaps its wings in China and, across the ocean, all the President's men are almost toppled — the code is clear: Do unto others before they can do unto you.