'SYRIANA' EXAMINES AN EXPLOSIVE MIDEAST.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

OIL IS A dirty business. And ``Syriana'' does a good job of presenting just how ugly the international energy trade can get.

This is big-issue moviemaking - tracing high-level Washington chicanery, amoral Texas business practices and ruthless sheikdom petro-politics. It follows the lowest levels of suicide terrorist development to rank betrayal within the CIA. It traces soul-wrenching trade-offs between personal lives and professional ethics - an ambition rarely seen on film anymore.

And, in some ways, writer-director Stephen Gaghan's eyes might have been a little too big on this one. An Oscar winner for scripting the complex ``Traffic,'' Gaghan sometimes directs ``Syriana'' like, well, a writer would.

Reams of well-researched information are worked quite well into the dialogue. Complicated political, cultural and economic concepts are more or less presented clearly (if you pay strict attention to the screen, that is). Despite terrific acting, the characters are so busy scheming, investigating others' schemes or trying not to get ... let's call it collateralized, it's difficult to become involved with their often profound crises of conscience.

But while it sounds glib to say that ``Syriana'' is educational at its best, I mean that as sincere praise. Mostly. There are certainly satisfying moments of terror and suspense distributed throughout the film's packed, two-hour run time. But whether or not you find the overall package consistently intriguing, this movie has so much worth knowing to impart, multiple viewings could not help but be rewarding.

Coming back might also be required to get a handle on the assorted narratives, which more or less line up with each other by the climax.

A beer-bellied, bearded and burned-out-looking George Clooney plays career CIA operative Bob Barnes. A tragic figure who's recently made an embarrassing mistake, he's sent to Beirut on a sensitive, make-good mission that goes even more catastrophically wrong.

Another calamity - his young son's death at an oil-rich emir's villa - leads Switzerland-based economic consultant Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon) to the inner circle of one of the aging ruler's sons, Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig), a progressive reformer who's in a succession fight with his wastrel, U.S.-leaning brother.

Many Persian Gulf strings are being pulled by two merging energy companies in Texas. They've got lots of questionable operations running across the globe. But everyone wants this marriage to happen, so a powerful D.C. law firm assigns Bennett Holiday (Jeffrey Wright), its shrewdest rule-stretcher, to perform an incredible simulation of due diligence over the merger.

Back in that unnamed Gulf Emirate, all this big government/business maneuvering throws impoverished Pakistani refinery hand Wasim Khan (Mazhar Munir) out of work. As the young man struggles - and fails - to find gainful dignity in the foreign land, the siren call of radical Islam echoes ever louder in his resentful brain.

Gaghan cuts between these main story lines and their assorted subplots less elegantly than Steven Soderbergh did for the structurally similar ``Traffic.'' That's another reason why we sometimes feel kept at arm's length from ``Syriana''; as soon as a scene's plot point is made, we're transported halfway around the world, with little time to absorb the additional human dimensions that build dramatic resonance.

But that doesn't take anything away from the intellectual stimulation that is ``Syriana's'' great strength as a movie. And the fact that almost every incident on screen plays like something we could actually read in tomorrow's headlines is a measure of its other great virtue: an honesty so fierce it brings Hollywood back to the world of reality, a place it has all but abandoned.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

SYRIANA - Three stars

(R: violence, language, children in jeopardy)

Starring: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, Mazhar Munir, Alexander Siddig, Christopher Plummer, Chris Cooper, Amanda Peet.

Director: Stephen Gaghan.

Running time: 2 hr. 3 min.

Playing: The Grove, Farmers Market; AMC, Santa Monica.

In a nutshell: Complicated, multistory look at corruption in the international oil trade is more informative than grippingly entertaining, but always smart and rich with fascinating moments.

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George Clooney is a career CIA operative who sent to Beirut on a sensitive mission that goes bad in ``Syriana.''