The film "Syriana" takes its name from a term used in think-tank circles in Washington to describe a hypothetical Middle East that has been gerrymandered up by multinational corporations, as opposed to the one we have now, which is dominated by tribal and Islamic loyalties. The thinking, of course, is that the competence and stability of western corporations would be able to stabilize and, yes Virginia, exploit the region for the good of the world.

The unspoken key to the Syriana concept, of course, is that in order for this hypothetical concept to become a reality, Islam must be eradicated, or at least have its influence greatly reduced. This raises an immediate red flag from knee-jerk liberals: forcing people to abandon, or at least ignore, centuries of religious tradition is the surest sign of imperialism, right?

Allow me to disagree. The fact is that the rest of the world and, in particular, America, would be far better off with secular governments in the Middle East that work hand-in-hand with western companies. Petroleum prices would drop, standards of living throughout the world would go up and, most importantly, the world would be a safer place. To do this, though, you do need corporations — that's the dirty little secret of the whole thing. Diplomacy doesn't work and, in truth, it hasn't worked in a long time. The idea of a promise from an American leader doesn't matter anymore, and it hasn't for several years (even before George Bush's election). The one thing the United States does have left is our money. That's still worth something.

So, if the only way to stabilize the most inherently unstable region of the world is by oilmen cutting backroom deals with princes and sheiks, what's the harm if some of their practices are unethical? Does the end justify the means? Or is corruption still corruption even if it serves a greater good down the line?

All of these moral issues are raised at various points in Stephen Gaghan's film, with varying degrees of success. The ideas are intriguing, but they aren't handled well enough to justify this movie's existence. It plays more like a filmed version on an article from The Economist than it does an actual movie. It's impossible to find a plot in this movie — it is, quite simply, a movie about oil.

The problem, as I see it, is that Gaghan never actually settles down and fleshes out any details. What we get is not an intelligent, in-depth analysis of a corrupt practice, but rather a choppy, frenetic summation of every little detail about how oil gets to your pump. We see the workers on the pipeline, the corporate attorney trying to convince a stubborn prince to tap a new field and shadowy CIA men just trying to maintain the status quo. All of this is, at points, interesting — at least until we finally realize that we're never going to settle down and get anything resembling a narrative. All we've got here is esoteric shoptalk.

The performances are good, but nobody in the cast (which includes Matt Damon, George Clooney, Amanda Peet, Christopher Plummer, William Hurt, Jeffrey Wright and Chris Cooper) has anything to hang their hats on. The characters are so loosely defined that nobody quite seems to know which direction their characters are heading in. Wright (playing an ambitious corporate lawyer) and Clooney (the CIA spook), in particular, are hamstrung, especially when Gaghan tries to slip in subplots about their dysfunctional families. The only cast members that really distinguish themselves are Damon and Peet.

Then again, this is a movie that is not about characters, but about ideas. And, let it be said, "Syriana" has some interesting ideas and produces some very interesting reactions for a movie that is generating controversy about whether or not it is liberal propaganda — it actually presents a particularly compelling case for the war in Iraq.

The basic thesis of the movie, as I understand it, is that in the end the Middle East needs democracy. Add in that the people we have trying to bring it to them are so corrupt that the whole cannot ever be fixed without a total house-cleaning, which, due to the current political climate, would mean booting some Republicans. Still, nothing in "Syriana" convinces me that a change at home would affect what see in the Middle East everyday. George Bush or John Kerry — we're still out of oil.

Grade: C