Preachy and High-Minded: Lions for Lambs

Lions for Lambs (Advance Screening)
Directed by Robert Redford
To be released November 9, 2007

Robert Redford's latest directorial feature is almost exactly what I expected going in. Three huge stars - Redford, Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise - take turns lecturing each other and the rest of the cast about how war is made, mistakes were made, and how plans for the future may not succeed. The film is full to the brim with haughty speeches, mostly from Redford and Cruise, which get tiresome over the course of the film's mere hour-and-a-half runtime. Redford's college professor talks to a student about his untapped potential, and the student could not care less, and neither could we. Streep seems at once confused and dismayed, and her facial expression hardly changes throughout the film. Cruise looks as if he is wearing a vest much too small for him, but he still borrows through his lines as if no one could possibly stop him. While these unengaging debates are taking place, the story of two stranded soldiers in Afghanistan is interspersed. Right in the middle of this far more compelling war film, it repeatedly cuts to Tom Cruise straining to get out of his vest or Streep parting her hair. The film has a compelling element but refuses to give it a chance to play out and instead frequently interrupts it for shots of Redford himself or the bigger star, which makes for a painfully uneven film. Not that I expected much more. As the tagline says, "If you don't stand for something, you might fall for anything." On that note, stand for avoiding this film.

C-