Syriana

(Herald rating: * * * * )

Be warned with this one: You're really going to have to pay attention. It's a big what-if of a film. An epic conspiracy theory of a political thriller about the US-led international petroleum business which sprawls from the sands of a fictional Arab state to the Big Oil boardrooms of Texas, with stop-offs in London, Geneva and New York along the way.

It's populated by nearly a dozen major characters whose significance is not immediately apparent. It does resemble Steven Soderbergh's war-on-drugs film Traffic, which Syriana director Gaghan wrote the screenplay for. But it's not quite as gripping as Traffic - Syriana might be oil-fired but it's got a listless energy. And while it tries to engage emotionally as well as intellectually - with a series of episodes involving various fathers and sons - it just has too much on its mind to get much purchase on the heart.

Still, it's one bold statement of a film about cause and effect. It's a forthright case study how about lust for oil also lubricates terrorism.

And it's served well by many performances producing their own latent heat. Among them is a bearded and beer-bellied Clooney as a CIA agent who finds himself suddenly dispensable in the Firm's war on terrorism. Likewise, Damon is impressive as a energy analyst who turns a personal tragedy into a career opportunity with one of the princes vying for the throne of the Arab state.

There are interconnected stories about the shady merger of two Texas oil companies; young Pakistani migrant oil workers laid off as a result of deals done half a world away finding solace in Muslim fundamentalism. And much more - but it's just that which is the otherwise admirable Syriana's drawback.

It's a movie that treats its lack of narrative clarity as a virtue because, hey, these geopolitical issues are complicated. Which might make it a Big Important Movie of Our Time. Just doesn't make it a great one.

CAST: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper, Amanda Peet, Christopher Plummer
DIRECTOR: Stephen Gaghan
RATING: R16 (violence, offensive language)
RUNNING TIME: 128 mins
SCREENING: Village, Hoyts, Berkeley, Rialto