Syriana
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: November 23, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Takes off with the lightning speed of a thriller, the gonzo force of frontline journalism and the emotional wallop of a drama that puts a human face on shocking statistics. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
An endlessly fascinating movie. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
For two hours I felt like a kitten chasing an elusive ball of catnip that remained just beyond my paw. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Ken Tucker
A film that transcends its obvious timeliness to say some elemental things about personal loyalty and institutional betrayal. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A fearless and ambitious piece of work, made with equal parts passion and calculation, an unapologetically entertaining major studio release with compelling real-world relevance, a film that takes numerous risks and thrives on them all. Read full review
90
Washington PostDesson Thomson
What's so powerful about the film is the rich stories it tells and how it leads them like so many human tributaries to one black, bubbling source. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
In today's environment, it's a rare thing to find a movie with interesting characters in dense, intelligent storylines, but that's what Syriana offers. It is one of the best films of 2005. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
A gripping and fascinating tale of political intrigue that spans three continents, its focus trained on the volatile Middle East. It's a global portrait of danger, deception and disillusionment, with no dearth of human casualties. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Clooney, who gained 35 pounds for the role, gives a self-effacing but highly effective performance. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
A gripping movie about espionage, loyalty and betrayal. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A weighty and deeply intriguing look at the many-tentacled beast that is the international oil industry. Wide-ranging and restlessly probing, Stephen Gaghan's second directorial effort uses the same mosaic storytelling technique as in his Oscar-winning screenplay for "Traffic." Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
This is a movie that sticks its political neck out, that throbs with dread, paranoia and outrage, that doesn't coddle the audience by neatly tying things up. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Corliss
Not a conventionally satisfying movie but a kind of illustrated journalism: an engrossing, insider's tour of the world's hottest spots, grandest schemes and most dangerous men. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Given the large cast, the international hopscotch, and the tantalizing illusion of depth, the movie's tone is "Frontline" meets John le Carré. Compared to the complacence of something like "The Interpreter," it's a regular brain tickler. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Gaghan brings in many more players, but edits the film into the lean, propulsive shape of a thriller. That ends up being something of a problem; some sub-plots never fully untangle and characters get lost as Gaghan rushes toward a conclusion that, taken on its own, is the stuff of a slightly hysterical leftie pamphlet. Read full review
80
The New York TimesDana Stevens
It aims to be a great deal more than a standard geopolitical thriller and thereby succeeds in being one of the best geopolitical thrillers in a very long time. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Seldom have form, content and cultural sensibility been so excitably aligned as in this fascinating, exasperating film about the unholy marriage of power politics and global business. Read full review
80
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
A bleak and powerful movie, made all the more sobering by how much of it isn't fiction. Read full review
80
EmpireColin Kennedy
Demanding, even confusing at times, this is required viewing that requires your full attention. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Syriana is the most challenging and uncompromising movie to come out of Hollywood in a long time. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
We can only hope that the time frame is meant to be sometime before 9/11, and not after. Either way, it's a troubling vision of how terrorism and "martyrdom" occur on both sides of this ghostly war, and is both perpetrated and facilitated by the very forces enlisted to stop it. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Syriana depicts a system so thoroughly and intractably rotten that the standard liberal how-you-can-make-a-difference solutions--being more conscientious about using electricity, getting a hybrid car, and so on--only look like so much spit in the face of an atomic fireball. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Reserved yet still suspenseful and hugely ambitious, Syriana sets out to prove what many have come to suspect -- that oil money is the root of all contemporary evil. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Politically, Syriana is a card-carrying liberal, more in tune with Le Carre and Greene than with Clancy. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
In its seriousness, Syriana has an absorbing, ominous roundness that plays even better with a second viewing. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Gaghan is attempting to cover so much ground in Syriana that the movie at times feels a little suffocating. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Clooney is the soul of Syriana, and his face is what you're left with long after the movie's obsessive plot details have sifted away. Read full review
70
SlateDavid Edelstein
A grim, twisty international conspiracy picture that challenges the audience on every level, political and aesthetic. The aesthetic part is a bit of an obstacle, though. I can't remember a time I had as much trouble--at a movie I admired--just figuring out what the hell was going on. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The film itself operates on shifting sands. Shot documentary-style, by Robert Elswit, and accompanied by a pounding soundtrack, Syriana makes high-octane melodrama look like revealed truth.
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
A major film without being a great film. It's a strange movie, and a stunningly pessimistic one, and the strangeness and pessimism connect it to other recent American films in ways that suggest that something unhappy in the national mood has crept into the movies. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Gaghan's a filmmaker for the gamer who doesn't need to have the plot follow a neat, linear path. Besides, you don't need to know precisely what's going on; no one else in the film does either. Which is Gaghan's point. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
This is intelligent, committed, and politically provocative, though its narrative puzzle box may prompt you to throw up your hands and let Exxon go on running the world. Read full review
70
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
This multiplicity--of people, stories, settings--is both the weakness and strength of the film. It is not easy to follow all the various threads, to get the pith of every scene. Still, this very abundance gives the whole picture a sense of authority. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Indeed, the point of Syriana appears to be that the whole lousy, corrupt, oil-producing and -consuming world is a ball of wax, ready to melt. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Syriana falls down at the most basic storytelling level, and this incoherence damages even the good parts. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The movie adds up to one of the smartest and most ambitious political thrillers in years. But if you find a more difficult movie to follow this year, it will be in Mandarin without subtitles. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It's simply not a very good movie. Its story line is populated with so many characters and meaningless names that it's nearly impossible to follow, and its author's message doesn't amount to much more than a cry of despair. Read full review
58
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The movie comes together like a nihilistic jigsaw puzzle - with a few pieces removed for that special, indefinable dash of pseudo-density. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
The character and geographical jumps leave you in a muddle with thinly sketched personalities and confusing plot points. Worse, dialogue dense with nuance and shaded meaning flies by too quickly. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
It's hard to get swept away when you're struggling to figure out who's doing what to whom and why. Read full review
More From This Movie

76 Critic Reviews

7.7 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL