The Men Who Stare At Goats (15)

IS it just me, or is anyone else surprised that Jude Law isn't in The Men Who Stare At Goats?

The George Clooney role is perfect for him. He's got to be cool. He's got to be suave. And he's got to spend a lot of time ogling a nanny.

Ahem. Thankfully, this movie is a lot funnier than that frankly pathetic gag.

This brilliant offbeat war comedy - based on the non-fiction book by British writer Jon Ronson - stars Ewan McGregor as a struggling, recently divorced hack who signs up to cover the Iraq war.

For reasons best known to nobody, Ewan plays the part with an American accent.

And, as anyone who's seen any of his recent stuff already knows, Ewan is to bad accents what Dick Van Dyke is to bad accents.

Thankfully though it's not a problem here. Not because his accent's any good - it's not - but because everything else about the film is so decent that you won't care about it.

When Ewan arrives in Kuwait City, he bumps into Lyn Cassady (Clooney), a man claiming to be a "psychic spy" from a top- secret division of the US Armed Forces called the New Earth Army.

Trolls

Founded during the 1960s by a wayward colonel (Jeff Bridges), the New Earth Army's plan was to train up an "army of warrior monks" who could walk through walls, read prisoners' thoughts and stop a goat's heart just by staring at it.

(I'm guessing the idea was to work up from goats. Although maybe the US Army wanted to invade a farmyard - or liberate a bridge and bring democracy to its displaced troll population).

Supposedly, some of this actually happened.

"More of this is true than you would believe," reads the film's opening caption - which is interesting, because the amount I would have believed is true is "not a ruddy second of it".

Naturally, George has one final mission to take care of. So Ewan joins him and they drive across the Iraqi desert, while George fleshes out the plot with some meaty flashback sequences.

From the inspired opening (which crosses the Supergrass track Alright with war footage) onwards, this is some balls-out confident film-making.

The polished screenplay flits from past to present and back with total ease. The cast, who also include Kevin Spacey in a supporting role as Clooney's conniving rival Larry Hooper, are all in fine fettle.

Shock

And the gags and bizarre situations fly by faster than Clooney's ever-changing range of hairdon'ts.

One of the most impressive thing about Goats is the number of different weapons in its comedy arsenal. For every moment where Clooney jumps out from behind the scenery, wild-eyed and kung-fued-up (and there are a couple), there's some much subtler comedy too.

It includes a hilarious lengthy tracking shot on George and Ewan's car trundling through the desert that doesn't seem to have a point . . . until the shock payoff.

Despite the setting and vague M*A*S*H overtones, Goats isn't really a war film - it's a comedy road movie where the road just happens to run through Saddam's back garden.

It's inspired daftness. And well worth a stare for fans of Clooney and inventive comedy alike.

OUT FRIDAY 6TH NOVEMBER

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