Review: No kidding... 'Men Who Stare at Goats,' not bad

No goats were harmed in the filming of "The Men Who Stare at Goats."

Goats, like people, need not take it seriously, although the film opens with a claim that "More of this is true than you would believe." (Yeah, sure. Don't kid about a movie about kids. We didn't "believe" any of it but still think it's one of the most funny, subtle and original comedies around.)

"Goats," which stars George Clooney and is currently in theaters, is a wacky comedy about our armed forces. The timing of its release is perhaps questionable, but how could the producers have known that the psychological fringes of the armed forces would be in real-life headlines now? The main target here is New Wave thinking, as the film purports to follow a secret paranormal unit of the Army created to encourage psychic gifts, promote love (- not war) and suggest that trained specialists would be able to walk through walls or stare goats into keeling over.

You don't have to buy it to laugh at the dry, straight-faced manner in which the all-star cast plays it.

Ewan McGregor (always boyish and likable) plays a reporter for the Ann Arbor Daily Telegraph who yearns to get off the city beat and go where the headlines are. (A poig-nant touch here is that Ann Arbor, Mich., in the real world recently lost its daily paper.) He ends up in Iraq, where he finds Lyn Cassady (Clooney), renowned as the most gifted psychic of the secret New Earth Army. Cassady has been known to stare a goat into submission (a scene animal lovers will particularly dislike). Clooney brings his own natural brand of mischievousness to the part, and it works well.

Poor McGregor has little to do but react, and his character joins us in being skeptical about this New Earth thing. Using a reporter to stand for the audience is an old ploy (as, for example, in 1962's "Lawrence of Arabia"). Together, they go into Iraq looking for Bill Django, the crazed founder of the New Earths, a hophead Vietnam veteran who has disappeared.

Jeff Bridges steals the movie in what amounts to a repeat of his playing of the Dude in "The Big Lebow-ski" (1998). Bridges, offscreen as well as on, has that "Don't give a damn " quality that lets him spout a pot tummy and go happily bald. (Guys with lots of hair should worry more about what's in their heads).

Clooney wants to be a Jedi warrior (an in-joke in that McGregor was in "Star Wars," even if it was the lesser-liked Parts 1-3).

There is evidence that in the 1980s there was a unit with men who were trained to stare at goats. There also is evidence that a real general once appeared on British television to talk about a kind of New Age, love-not-war movement in the Army. The movie's producers are probably keeping these facts hidden. Too much reality and no one would laugh at this film.

Throw in Kevin Spacey as a spaced-out, ambitious villain who wants to take over, even if he doesn't believe, and you have enough comic possibilities for a comedy skit. Maybe not for an entire movie, but there is enough energy here to distract you into not noticing how thin the plot is.

Interestingly, it is based on a non-fiction book by Jon Ronson, who also has written for the British paper The Guardian.

Nonfiction? Now, that's a laugh.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com