Lions for Lambs follows three storylines playing out simultaneously. One segment focuses on Republican Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise), a politician with a risky idea on how to stop the war. Senator Irving invites a journalist (Meryl Streep) who’s been in the business for 40+ years – long enough to have covered the debacle that was the Vietnam War – into his office for an hour long one-on-one in order to give her an exclusive on his ambitious new plan of attack. Irving's plan: to surprise the enemy by using smaller, quick-moving military units. Of course that means there’s less support and back-up should things turn nasty, but Senator Irving’s ready to take that risk because, as he tells the reporter, he’ll do whatever it takes to turn the war around.
While Senator Irving’s busy explaining his approach to winning in Iraq and Afghanistan, lifelong friends Ernest Rodriguez (Michael Pena) and Arian Finch (Derek Luke) are sitting with their fellow soldiers as their commanding officer explains their next mission – a mission based on Senator Irving’s proposal. Their leader admits the plan’s being rushed into fruition, but they are under orders to carry out the attack. Exactly how rushed the mission is quickly becomes evident when the unit’s helicopter comes under heavy fire and Rodriguez and Finch are left alone in enemy territory after falling (or in Finch’s case, jumping) from the helicopter.
The Cast
Senator Irving’s priming himself for an eventual run at the presidency and Cruise’s performance captures that sickeningly smooth political vibe. Redford’s fine as a college professor who’s been around the block quite a few times but hasn’t given up hope that he can positively influence his students into becoming better human beings.
Hardly any scenes felt organic other than the ones involving the military operation, and most played out as though the actors were reading from scripts held barely out of frame. None of the leads sold their stories with the exception of Michael Pena and Derek Luke. These two made the most of their parts in Lions for Lambs, and gave the film a much needed jolt of both emotion and adrenaline whenever they appeared onscreen.
The Bottom Line
Get engaged, speak out - the call to action is the point of the film. Lions for Lambs is not here to entertain us, it’s here to inform anyone willing to listen about what’s going on right now in the world. However, and this is where the movie fails so miserably, there’s a whole lot of bluster and pontificating that leads to absolutely nowhere. That’s right, nowhere. After sitting through this dialogue-heavy drama and you're expecting all the insistent yapping to have been leading up to a finale that’ll knock your socks off or at least leave you anxious to make your voice heard, there’s a meek little ending that’s more of a feeble whimper than a roar. Lions for Lambs is an extremely disappointing film that wastes a solid premise.
GRADE: C-
Lions for Lambs was directed by Robert Redford and is rated R for some war violence and language.
