Lions for Lambs film review

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LIONS FOR LAMBS

Robert Redford returns to the director's chair for the first time since 2000's Legend of Bagger Vance with Lions For Lambs. Scripted by Matthew Carnahan, who was also responsible for The Kingdom earlier this year, it represents the writer's think piece on the war on terror rather than his preceding action vehicle. Redford would no doubt like to see his film as a wake up call on the global situation for audiences worldwide, but the truth is that there is nothing new to latch on to.

In a style that is reminiscent of Alejandro Inarritu's Babel, the script of Lions For Lambs follows three separate storylines that may or may not be connected. In Washington a weary hack (Meryl Streep) visits her latest assignment in the guise of Tom Cruise's oleaginous war Senator. He has an ambitious new plan to tell her about how to speed up progress in Iraq and Afghanistan - she feels she has heard it all before.

Simultaneously in a Californian university, an ageing liberal professor (Robert Redford) tries to rally some inspiration into his underperforming star pupil (Andrew Garfield), while on the slopes of an Afghan mountain two young US soldiers (Michael Pena and Derek Luke) battle for their lives as enemy forces surround them.

What does it all mean? It's actually hard to tell. Despite the presence of some powerhouse stars this is a talky, meandering piece that certainly plays longer than its slim running time. It tries to make the audience think and put the pieces of the jigsaw together but never succeeds in being as clever as it would like to believe it is.

The film is part of a collection of recent American releases to look at the war on terror which have generally met with a lukewarm response. Perhaps the fault lies with the filmmakers, but it may also be due to viewer fatigue as US audiences in particular are bombarded on a daily basis with the latest deadly statistics from Iraq and Afghanistan. If they are to spend money on a film concerning these issues, then they are certainly going to want something that is much less obvious and patronising than this latest effort.