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I wasn't particularly bothered about seeing this one, but my quest to see as many Oscar nominees as possible made me. I am not a fan of Traffic, Steven Gaghan's previous writing effort, and Syriana (which he also directs) sounded very similar. I'm pleased to say that I was pleasantly surprised. It was very reminiscent of Traffic in structure, as in it followed several separate strands which only intersect a little, but I found Syriana far more engrossing and interesting than its predecessor. That is probably partly because I found the subject matter more interesting (oil rather than drugs) but also it seemed more cohesive than Traffic, in which I found the plot strands just too disparate. Here when the strands intersect it's oddly satisfying, especially at the end. From what I'd read about it I expected the film to be harder to follow, but while I didn't catch all the intricacies of what was going on all the time, I did generally follow it pretty easily. The opinion of the friend I saw it with was that "nothing happened", however, so it's obviously not going to be everyone's cup of tea.
The summary
Syriana is slow moving and not geared to the mass market in the slightest. If this sort of thing interests you, though, it'll give you your money's worth. And don't let Traffic put you off!
