Syriana

Last night was a good night to head out to the movies. Since much buzz has been generated about Syriana it felt like the best choice.

It turns out that the feeling was correct.

Syriana while laboring along in rapids cuts only gives the audience member a clue to the bigger picture here or there as a handfull puzzle pieces are placed in your lap. (unless you were the idiot who brought a 14 inch pizza and bread sticks to create their own strange version of dinner theater.)

The film is very complicated in the way it is presented but it is meant to do so to remind the viewer of the maze one must truly wander in the international oil race. Contracts are signed, leaders are wrongfully accused and yes, people will die either physically or morally off the radar.

There are wonderful elements of symbolism as well but at the risk of spoiling it, I will allow the viewer to wander down this path of discovery on their own.

Most of all this film will inspire dialogue many hours after the credits have ceased rolling. Even now I find it hard to divorce what I have seen in a fictional story with what appears in the news headlines. Syriana is worth the ride and as John Douglas of The Grand Rapids Press says it should be moved up to the top of your must see film list.