Stephen Gaghan has written another piece of brilliance, as Syriana does for the oil industry what Traffic did for the drug trade.
Syriana is another complex, intelligent thriller so relevant to what's going on in the world today that it's hard not to sit up and pay attention despite how long it might take the non-MENSA members to figure out what's happening. After explaining to my friend what actually happened in the film, he cleverly pointed out, that if the film is somewhat plausible in what transpires in the Middle East, you would feel incredibly guilty putting gas into your vehicle.
On the other hand, it may be too intelligent for its own good, because only those who keep up with world economics, the oil industry and the situation in the Mideast might be able to keep up with the film's set-up that introduces dozens of players in what is essentially four separate, but related stories. Otherwise you might stare blankly at the screen as a lot of politicians and corporate heads babble to each other in code, but if you pay close attention, things will be that much more interesting when the stories start to collide.
Once they do start coming together and things start to make sense - it builds to an amazing final act that's just one climax after another. Once you've figured out what is going on, you're likely to be kept on the edge of your seat. The thing is that Gaghan has done such a good job setting this story in a setting as close to reality as possible, that it makes all of it that much scarier.
