Despite Clooney, this war effort falls short

You'd have to be out of your mind to object to watching George Clooney -- in full Clark Gable mode, no less -- for an hour and a half. But he's part of the problem with "The Men Who Stare at Goats," a wartime satire that glides along with an easy, slightly gonzo grin on its face but never quite goes anywhere. Clooney is admittedly appealing but oddly miscast as Lyn Cassady, a former soldier who was recruited to a top-secret psy-ops outfit trying to harness supernatural powers. Ewan McGregor plays a journalist who embeds with Cassady, a psychic master now working as a private contractor, on an Iraq war mission. As the two make their way on an increasingly digressive journey, "The Men Who Stare at Goats" becomes an amusing but finally trivial picaresque, part Hunter S. Thompson, part Stanley Kubrick, with none of their ferocious genius.

Which isn't to say that "The Men Who Stare at Goats" is a bust. Directed by Grant Heslov (who wrote Clooney's "Good Night, and Good Luck"), the movie unfolds with an easygoing, ambling geniality and features a very funny and improbably touching performance by Jeff Bridges as Lyn's New Age mentor (picture the Dude in fatigues). But maybe because real-life Americans and Iraqis are still in harm's way over there, the film's arch tone doesn't quite play. "The Men Who Stare at Goats" is an enjoyable bagatelle, but somehow you want it to be more.

** and a half R. Contains profanity, some drug content and nudity. 95 minutes.