'Syriana'

"Syriana" is a film of paradoxes, contradictions and complications. It's a political thriller that thrives on misdirection, on hiding information just as it hides glamorous George Clooney behind a rumpled exterior and a full beard. Even its title is a puzzler: The meaning is critical, but no one on screen so much as says the word let alone explains it.

By Kenneth Turan

November 23, 2005