Philadelphia Weekly

Robert Redford has directed a great movie about a nation losing its sense of purpose, a savage indictment of our increasingly bought-and-paid-for mass media, and a cutting depiction of our country's core values ebbing away while a curiously indifferent American public remains too lazy and distracted to even bother noticing. Unfortunately, the movie I'm talking about was called Quiz Show, and Redford made it 13 years ago.

His latest effort Lions for Lambs attempts to tackle all the same subjects, only with a much greater sense of urgency and an absolutely breathtaking absence of artistry.

There's been a lot of ink spilled in entertainment columns lately about the cold shoulder turned by the public to the recent rash of pictures confronting our current fiasco in the Middle East. Pundits are wondering if the timing is off. Too soon? Maybe so. But after enduring In the Valley of Elah, Rendition and now Lions for Lambs, I humbly suggest that perhaps the real problem is these movies are awful.

Redford stars as a California college professor named Stephen Malley who calls in a slacker student (the immensely unappealing Andrew Garfield) for an early morning meeting, and proceeds to read him the riot act. Our teacher has had it up to here with this promising young man squandering his potential. While attempting to jostle the kid out of his apathy, he mixes personal insults and broad-stroke harangues with the tale of his two favorite former students (blank, idealized ciphers played by Derek Luke and Michael Pe�a), who were so revved-up to change the world that they ran off and enlisted in the Army, over Doc Malley's strenuous objections.

In a coincidence that can generously be described as obnoxious, it is at this exact same moment that our two brilliant young soldiers are shot out of a helicopter, stranded, wounded and pinned down by Taliban fire somewhere on a snowy ridge in Afghanistan. Redford's lecture is thus intercut with their agonized wait for rescue, and one begins to wonder if, after suffering similar circumstances in last year's World Trade Center, Michael Pe�a now specializes in playing injured characters who lie groaning and immobile for entire movies on end.

A third story strand is, of course, also happening at this exact same moment. We zip back and forth to Washington, D.C., where hotshot Republican Sen. Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise) is laying out his audacious plan to win the war on terror once and for all in an exclusive interview with a harried, washed-up reporter portrayed quite badly by Meryl Streep.

Say what you will about Cruise's creepy behavior of late, but his performance is the only remotely entertaining thing in this movie. He gently nudges all those familiar, slick, often overdetermined acting mannerisms into glorious displays of dazzlingly charismatic insincerity. It's a joy to hear him piously kick around neocon catchphrases regarding faith and democracy, before flashing that toothy asshole grin. Cruise should've played a politician years ago, preferably in a smarter movie, or at least one where his character doesn't turn out to be a closet monster with a hard-on for nuclear weapons.

For something that fancies itself a call to action, it's ironic that Matthew Michael Carnahan's screenplay can't even be bothered to dramatize anything. One of the least cinematic movies ever made, Lions for Lambs is simply a sloppily photographed recording of four underwritten characters sitting around reciting generic, dumbed-down talking points at one another inside drab offices. Sure, occasionally we'll cut away to a couple bloody kids stuck in the snow on the other side of the world, but these alleged action sequences are even more static and inertly directed than the cross-talk.

It's obvious Redford has the best of intentions. He desperately wants to tell the audience to wake up and engage with the world. But there have got to be a million better ways to do so than sitting behind a desk, staring into the camera and actually saying out loud: "Wake up! Engage with the world!" It smacks of arrogance (and also calls attention to the tragic plastic surgery that's left Redford looking constantly startled these days).

It's the role of an artist to not just comment on current events, but also to shape that commentary into a dramatic form that'll excite, move and inspire people. Lions for Lambs isn't filmmaking; it's list-making.

Lions for Lambs
D
Director: Robert Redford
Starring: Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise
Opens Fri., Nov. 9