Lions For Lambs

After an illustrious acting career that saw him headline oodles of memorable motion pictures while raising female temperatures the world over as the Sixties answer to Brad Pitt, Robert Redford became a pretty good director. However, given the fact that his movies usually had some relation to subjects he was interested in, some eyebrows were raised that the outspoken former-heartthrob had yet to translate his political passion to the big screen. In fact, you could say it was political that he wasn’t being political.

So now with Lions for Lambs, Redford finally gets his activist on. Splitting proceedings into three main segments with the occasional flashback to join the according dots, Bob’s think-piece engages us in different ways while both his acting and directing is spot on. Unfortunately, while three acting heavyweights, an opinion-dividing subject and Redford’s seal of quality would usually mean Oscar buzz aplenty, the only whispers so far have been that the couch-jumping Cruise wasn’t too popular with his two fellow leads. Oh well Tom, can’t win 'em all.

The film sees a disillusioned journalist (Meryl Streep) spar with an ambitious Republican congressman (Tom Cruise) about his new policy on stopping terrorism, as two young military soldiers (Michael Peña and Derek Luke) are caught on a snowy mountain under fire as part of this new initiative. Elsewhere a political science professor (Robert Redford) has a meeting with a brilliant-yet-apathetic student (Andrew Garfield) that he believes could actually make a difference in the world.

While the military portion is in the minority in terms of celluloid time, all three narratives deliver and keep us interested as the tale moves between them. Cruise and Streep draw us in with their conversational jousting and the two young soldiers impress in a very memorable classroom scene. However, it’s the exchanges between veteran stallion Redford and funky shirt-sporting newcomer Garfield that truly capture our attention.

In his first major movie Garfield impresses without ever seeming overpowered or under-shadowed by acting opposite such a seasoned veteran. As the two intelligently debate how well the young student is using, or indeed misusing, his potential, we are convinced back and forth by their charismatic arguments as they battle to steal the show. “Rome is burning son!” Indeed.

Though politics heavy and bordering on talky-overload, Lions For Lambs is another impressive feather in Robert Redford’s already brimming cap. It might not roar quite like we imagined it to, but it’s far from counting sheep.