Hollywood goes to war

Just out of the Lions for Lambs premiere in Leicester Square. It is the latest of Hollywood's celluloid attacks on the White House, and a call to arms. The plot: Tom Cruise is a senator with presidential ambitions giving a reporter (Meryl Streep) an exclusive on his latest strategy in Afghanistan - ongoing as they talk. It backfires and two soldiers end up stranded on an Afghan mountain top, hoping they're rescued before the Taleban arrive.

Robert Redford (who plays a university professor, trying to talk those two soldiers out of signing up) directs. His message is that it is time for good people (Democrats) to intervene, and stop the war. As his character says, "Rome is burning, and the problem is not the people who started this. They are gone. The problem is us, who are dancing around the fire". Rather than extinguish it which is what Redford suggests outsiders should be doing.

The problem is Cruise’s character is such a cliché of the Evil Republican that he has trouble delivering his lines with a straight face. It is one of those 24-style films, with three ongoing but separate narratives. You almost expect Jack Bauer to walk in. Redford borrows shamelessly from other cinematic themes from the Good Will Hunting professor-student pep talks to the two soldiers surrounded a la Sundance kid.

The moral is hammered home so bluntly that it loses its force. But the scenes of fighting in the frozen Afghan Mountains are vivid and gripping - and a sobering reminder of how many Brits are doing that now.

I never miss a Cruise film on principle, and wouldn't have missed this even if I wasn't been given a chance to see how short he is in real life. But as an offensive political weapon, I think this will leave the White House unscathed.

Update: leaving the party, they hand out a copy of tomorrow's Times (which sponsored the premiere). The review's headline: "Redford's attack on terror war misfires". Two stars. Ouch.