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randall 
"I like to watch."
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 Posted - 10/24/2007 : 04:05:48
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As the lights came up after tonight's FSLC preview screening, my guest -- not Ms. Randall this evening -- said, "You gotta admit: Redford's still got it!" And so I do. Not only another remarkable directorial job, he's on camera too, and very effectively.
(1)Tom Cruise is a remarkably charming U.S. Senator granting an interview to broadcast journalist Meryl Streep. Although nobody uses the R-word, Cruise is clearly a member of the ruling party, has the ear of the Prez, and is spearheading a new kind of strategy in Afghanistan: small patrols to surgically pick off "Tallys," to get the American people a "win." He wants her to spread the word. "When do you start?" she asks. "About ten minutes ago."
(2)College political science professor Robert Redford [you wish this had been your professor, unless you were lucky enough to actually have one like him] has a special heart-to-heart with a promising but slacking student.
(3)One of the Afghanistan patrols on Cruise's new mission undergoes fire from a position that was judged to be clear. Two grunts ditch and are pinned down. As we soon discover, they have a previous relationship with the Redford character.
We spin among these three parallel stories, which except for a flashback or two may even be unfolding in real time -- I'll have to watch a second time to make sure. To Redford's great credit, all political points of view of this Mess-opotamia are heard. Drama comes from the most unlikely spots. It is gut-wrenching, and completely recognizable from recent headlines. Do not dare miss this one. |
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Lions For Lambs
