Here’s a movie that gets your ‘Goat’

While I sit here watching “Law & Order,” I’m thinking about the movie that we saw earlier this evening - the curiously named “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” Based on the trailer, i was expecting a comedy. And a comedy is what I got.

What I needed, though, was an ending.

The conceit of the film, which is based on a nonfiction book by British writer Jon Ronson, is that an American journalist named Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) stumbles onto the story of his life.  He meets Lyn Cassidy (George Clooney), a retired “psychic spy” who prefers the title of Jedi warrior. Seems Cassidy was once part of a U.S. Army team that tried to harness powers of the human brain to create a new kind of soldier.

They meet in Iraq, where Bob - a journalist for a Michigan newspaper - is trying to find a way into the action. That’s when he connects with Cassidy who, ultimately, tells Bob that he’s been reactivated and is on a mission. Before long the two have a car accident, are kidnapped by Iraqi criminals, escape (thanks to Cassidy’s quick thinking), save an Iraqi civilian, are saved by a team of clueless “contractors,” escape an absurd firefight, end up back in the desert, hit an IED, almost die in the desert, are picked up by the U.S. military - and end up back where Cassidy began … with some of his New Earth warriors.

We know about these guys because, as Bob and Cassidy have been making their way across the desert, director Grant Heslov has been giving us the backdrop on Cassidy’s Army career - his transfer to the New Earth group, his mentoring by a New Age soldier (Jeff Bridges), his development as a Jedi, the intrusion into the group by a bad egg (Kevin Spacey) and the ultimate breakup of everything.

By the time the reunion takes place, there’s not much left of the film. Or the story either. Which is the problem. “The Men Who Stare at Goats” is one of those films that follows a real story but adds the absurdity for entertainment value. And there’s a fair amount of entertainment in the film, especially as it’s played by Clooney - who has real comic talent - McGregor and Bridges.

But once the story comes to an end, there’s the old Peggy Lee question: Is that all there is?

Below: The trailer for “The Men Who Stare at Goats.”