Lions for Lambs

Lions for Lambs is Robert Redford's urgent, impassioned wake-up call for America, a hot-button incendiary work that is certain to become the most controversial and talked-about movie of 2007. Current big-star-laded Hollywood movies rarely, if ever, take the kinds of risks this one does. It's basically all talk, split into three different sections it cuts back and forth between. In one set piece, an ambitious Republican senator (Tom Cruise) with clear presidential ambitious summons a news reporter (Meryl Streep) to his Washington, D.C., office in order to give her what he considers to be a major scoop regarding the war in Afghanistan. She is a onetime top journalist that has deep misgivings about buying the senator's spin on things, even though her editor is thrilled to have the breaking news before anyone else. On another front, college professor Robert Redford (who doubles as director) calls a promising but apathetic student (Andrew Garfield) into his office to try and light a fire under him, challenging the kid to get involved and become concerned about the world he lives in. This is all bookended by flashback sequences in which two dedicated students (Michael Peña, Derek Luke) decide to put their actions where their mouth is and volunteer to join the army and go to Afghanistan. It's somewhat disjointed, but eventually it all comes together. Cruise gives one of his finest performances as a senator with an agenda, and Streep proves once again there's no one better. It's been over three decades since Redford made such vital political films as All the President's Men and The Candidate, but clearly he's still out there swinging, trying to use motion pictures to make a difference. This one will have the right wing all hot and bothered; but really, despite it's rhetoric, this is a film of ideas, where anyone can find a talking point. Agree or disagree, love it or hate it, you won't be able to turn away.