Lions for Lambs is probably one of the reasons I watch movies. And not because of any inherent quality in it.

Cinematographically speaking, it’s nothing special. Most of the movie takes place in just three locations anyway.

The score, beyond the opening track, isn’t all that memorable. The acting is fairly dry too, with the exception of Robert Redford. But before I go any further, let’s talk about the story, since this really is all the movie has going for it.

Lions For Lambs is three stories, all with semi-relevant connections to one another, that by and large remain self-contained. One is the story of journalist Janine Roth (Meryl Streep), who has an interview with Sen. Irving (Tom Cruise) about a new strategy for American deployment into Afghanistan. Roth constantly counters Irving’s arguments with how much all of this sounds like rhetoric from the original Iraq war. However, Irving will hear nothing of her suggestions if they stand in the way of American progress and righteousness.

The next story is that of two of the soldiers involved in the Afghanistan operation, and most of their story takes place on a mountain top as they wait for Taliban insurgents.

The last story, and easily the most interesting, is that of a conference between political science major Todd and his professor, Stephen Malley (Redford).

These stories are called “talking head” stories — those in which a few characters are in a static space and are just talking to each other, back and forth. Beyond a few fight sequences with the two military men, this movie is a lot of talking. And not the kind with backhand and witty banter. This is one big giant soapbox with three very prominent actors standing at the center, all vying for your attention. I can’t even imagine this movie was made to make money, because it’s not fun.

This is a thinking movie. This is a propaganda movie. This is a movie about life. It’s two prominent political perspectives — Irving’s gung ho view that we should police the earth and be free to ignore the fact that this plan rarely works, and Roth’s perspective that questioning is ultimately preferable over actual action. It’s the soldier’s perspective that the only way to change the world is to put yourself at the head of it. And it’s the teacher’s perspective, those of our parents and forbearers, that doing something, anything, with the time we have is way more important than just talking about doing something.

It’s heavy stuff, and it’s frustrating stuff. And like all propaganda films, there are things that get stepped on or downright ignored, such as factual evidence or balanced perspectives. Cruise and Streep are very good at telling us what we believe and then telling us what’s right to believe. Cruise’s Irving blames the media for making the public lose the moral war and Streep’s Roth blames the government for not thinking things through.

At times they make America seem like this poor country that just needs its people to stand up for it, that if we’d just get behind it things would be better. But even then I can’t trust the movie because Roth has a mental breakdown part of the way through and just spouts political gibberish and semantics — and at that point I can’t believe a thing the movie says.

And speaking of unbalanced perspectives, the Middle Easterners, specifically Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, are portrayed as either in need of our rescuing or as shadowy, faceless insurgents hell-bent on destroying our happiness.

And it’s times like these I think the movie is dangerous.

But this is the ultimate purpose of Malley’s scenes. Malley is the counterbalance for us as individuals.

While Roth and Irving wage war for our very morality, Redford’s Malley stares us — college students — down and essentially tells us to just do something. He tells us he can respect what we believe, but begs us to do something with those beliefs. Malley is the guiding hand in a world of political flack and banter, and his warmth and honesty is the only thing in this movie that keeps me from tearing my hair out.

And that’s why this movie is probably one of the reasons I watch movies. To feel passionate about my beliefs, to be asked what those beliefs are, to have things about a movie that I fully despise and to have things about a movie that utterly capture my attention.

This movie isn’t all that much fun, but it is a thoughtful movie, albeit frustratingly and heavy-handedly so.

I don’t recommend it, but I was thoroughly mesmerized by what was being said.