Review: ‘Body of Lies’

Zac:

Ridley Scott brings in a couple of A-listers in Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe to take a shot at the spy globe trotting genre, and what we get is a very real feeling and superbly made film that will keep you guessing until the end.

Roger Ferris (DiCaprio) is a C.I.A. operative in the middle east collecting intel and eliminating targets under the watchful eye of his supervisor Ed Hoffman (Crowe) who sits at home in D.C. and at Langley calling the shots from overhead surveillance from the sky.   Hoffman is a firm believer in the fight against terrorism, and will do anything he can to gain control of a situation, sometimes at the expense of Ferris not really being in on the big picture.   Ferris is the working grunt, risking his life and cover to help our intelligence flow, and he is not naive to that either, using it to pull some leverage on the ground when he can.   Either way, both men are out to get Al-Saleem, the most active Islamic Terrorist at the time who avoids being found by never getting on a cell phone, the internet, nothing; everything is face to face with him.   Al-Saleem is a thorn in the fight on terror’s side, as he has successfully been bombing European cities for a recent time with the U.S. government always two steps behind it seems.

Hoffman redeploys Ferris after his latest intel grab to Jordan to investigate a possible safe house that was discovered in the recovered documents.   Ferris takes command of the local C.I.A. operation there and decides he needs the assistance of Hani, a Jordanian official that will allow Ferris access to his secret service for reconnaissance activities on the supposed safe house.   Hani is big on trust and the truth though, something that Ferris fully believes in, but Hoffman’s antics could cause problems down the line.

To say more would be a disservice to William Monahan’s excellent script that keeps you on your toes and always wondering where it is going to go next.   Monahan crafts a very informed and realistic approach to the spy film and it feels like this could/is happening everyday over in the Middle East.   Nothing really seems all that far fetched and the Monahan never really gives into clichà © when it comes to the genre.   His best asset to keeping things different is the excellent character of Ferris that DiCaprio pulls off so damn well.   Ferris is a bad ass super spy, though he is not written with the suaveness of a Bond, or the perfect precision of a Bourne, he is just real, but really damn good.   He hits bumps in the road, he might have a bit of a struggle to overcome obstacles, but he gets the job done.   He is extremely smart and excels at his job, so while he might not be as flashy or grand as the two resident super spies of cinema, I wouldn’t be ashamed to put money on him in a fight; he can definitely hold his own and is one tough son of a bitch.   Hoffman is the perfect supervisor, full of himself, scheming, kind of a jerk, but Crowe makes him likable even in his pompousness.   Crowe does a great job here, though I wish there was more screen time for him, as he is a bit in the background to Ferris, which is fine, because DiCaprio is fantastic here.   Mark Strong also turns in some great work as Hani, as he is imposing, intimidating, and mysterious all at once, and will have you always guessing if there is more to him then he lets on.   Rounding out the cast is a possible love interest for Ferris in Golshifteh Farahani’s, Aisha, who does a great job of bringing a sweetness to the relationship she forms with Ferris, while maintaining a since of reserve do to the world they are in.   Monahan’s script does an excellent job here as well, in not throwing in some lavish romance for the sake of having one, and what he puts in here is more than appropriate the whole time.   Alon Abutbul also turns in some great work as Al-Saleem, making the most of his short amounts of screen time that he has.

In the end, Body of Lies, is a great spy movie that is expertly acted and crafted, but overall doesn’t have the story or suspense to knock your socks off.   Though, I don’t think the films intention is to thrill as much as it is to inform of this world that is out there, and make the viewer ask questions as to what are we doing over there in the Middle East, and to that effect it does well.   Like Scott’s last effort, American Gangster, you can’t really find anything wrong with this film, but you walk away feeling like it fell short of being something magnificent, but at least you can add it to one of the many great films of the year.

[rating:4/5]

Jeremy:

The Fall Ridley Scott/Russell Crow disappointment is becoming a yearly reminder that we need to turn our clocks back. In 2006, the two came out with the atrocious ‘A Good Year’. Last year, ‘American Gangster’ came out, and it, too, was a big disappointment for fans of the director or star. Is it coincidence or is a new pattern emerging? Now, we have ‘Body of Lies’, the latest film directed by Scott and starring Crowe. This time, they’ve brought Leonardo DiCaprio along, a pretty good ace in the hole considering his film selections the past couple of years. So, does ‘Body of Lies’ break the emergin pattern of disappointments? Does it fall into the same, substandard category as the previous two films?

In a nutshell, yes and no.

Based on Washington Post columnist David Ignatius’ 2007 novel, ‘Body of Lies’ stars DiCaprio as a CIA operative embedded into the Middle East. Crowe plays the operative handler, a DC bureacrat who enjoys sitting in front of a dozen monitors and watching the action go down from afar. The two butt heads constantly, the handler time and time again undermines what the operative is trying to accomplish. However, the two must work together if they are to bring down the head of a major terrorist cell.

There is a very interesting concept that comes up in ‘Body of Lies’. The field agent devises a plan to falsify the existence of an emerging terrorist group. He feels that in doing this, the terrorist leader they are searching for will come out of hiding and allow them to capture him. It is a brilliant idea for a movie, and it sets up a premise that could have filled out a full, two-hour film. Unfortunately, this idea is never even mentioned until after an hour of screen time has gone by.

The first hour of ‘Body of Lies’ follows a simple pattern. DiCaprio is making headway. He works towards uncovering a lead. Crowe casually swoops in and screws it all up. DiCaprio gets livid. Crowe calms him down saying somethine along the lines of, “We’ll get ’em next time, buddy.” This happens two or three times all pretty much the same way as the previous time. There are a lot of scenes of these two characters heatedly conversing over cell phones, Crowe usually talking into an earpiece. You expect more action or even tension that rarely comes.

When the action does kick in, it is great. There is a short opening chase scene through the desert. Two SUVs are chasing DiCaprio in another vehicle. Two helicopters are chasing the SUVs. There are some great explosions and some really nice editing that puts the scene all together. It’s over pretty quickly, though, and we move on to the next sequence of buildup.

That is really what makes up most of ‘Body of Lies’, buildup. The film puddle-jumps between action moments that are few and far between. What makes up the in-between time is a lot of cliched arguments and contrived setups.

At one point, DiCaprio meets an attractive nurse. If you’ve seen any movie that follows the same, basic premise as this, you know one of two things are going to happen. She is either going to serve absolutely no purpose to the story, or she is going to become a major liability to the hero of the story. You really hope that Scott can come up with something different and original to do with her, but it just doesn’t happen. Aside from the long periods of nothing happening, ‘Body of Lies’ suffers from “been-there-done-that” syndrome.

What ‘Body of Lies’ does do very well is in the acting. DiCaprio has matured very well over the past ten years. He is long past the teen heartthrob who helped propel ‘Titanic’ to $700 million. He is a serious actor who never placates a role for the sake of making it easier on himself. He plays every part to its fullest, and he’s not afraid of where that may take him. This is no different here.

Crowe just likes to lose himself in a character. It helps that he apparently packed on about 50 lbs. for his part here. Even when he’s talking into the air with an earpiece dangling from his ear, he emits more intensity than most actors. It gets a little hammy when he’s looking up over the tops of his glasses. That gets a little old, but, all in all, a great performance by a great actor.

Also of note is Mark Strong who plays Hani Salaam, the head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Department. He quickly proves himself to be in the same league as the film’s two leads. In fact, he probably deserves billing right up beside Crowe as the second lead of the film. An English actor, Strong wraps the character around himself making it his own.

Unfortunately, the debate on whether Ridley Scott has hit a snag in his career is still yet to be seen. ‘Body of Lies’ is disappointing only in that one expects greatness form someone like Scott, but the film is not entirely dissuasive. I guess it’s left up to ‘Nottingham’ to determine whether or not Scott has hit the filmmaking wall.

[rating:2.75/5]

Ram Man:

Leave it to Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe and Leo DiCaprio to do what America hasn’t…catch the head of a terrorist cell hiding in the Middle East. Scott directs Crowe and DiCaprio in the new film “Body of Lies” based on the novel by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. Body of Lies is a tale of covert CIA missions to eliminate the head of the terrorist “snake” and win the war on terror.

DiCaprio plays Roger Ferris, the CIA’s best operative, deep undercover in the Middle East tracking down terrorist cells and the safe houses they use to store intel. Working with some of the local law enforcement they discover one of these safe houses with a guy burning Cd’s and paperwork in front of it. Ferris looks up and actually spots the satellite watching them and has them back off before they blow the operation. Ferris wanders up speaking Arabic about his car having a blown engine, when all hell blows! A gun fight ensues and leads to a SUV chase across the desert and ends with two choppers taking out the terrorist SUVs before they kill Ferris. Crowe plays Ed Hoffman, the over zealous head of the CIA covert ops division and direct supervisor to Ferris.

Hoffman is more a hinderence than an assistance in the ongoing operations. Hoffman trusts no one not in the CIA, but expects everyone to cooperate with him. Ferris, while following a lead from the information gathered at the safe house, goes to Amman Jordan and discovers the terrorist version of the Holiday Inn. A giant house with known terrorist coming and going freely. Ferris reaches out to the head of Jordan’s military police, Hani Salaam (Mark Strong). He earns Hani’s trust and the two begin to put a plan in motion to take down the safe house and capture Al-Saleem (an Osama Bin-Laden type terrorist leader). This doesn’t sit well with Hoffman who doesn’t trust Salaam. So Hoffman, secretly starts another operation without informing Ferris and ruins the entire plan. The terrorist burn the safe house and destroy all of the intel. Hani feels betrayed by Ferris and the CIA and kicks him out of the country.

In a face to face with Hoffman, Ferris comes up with a plan to create a faux terrorist cell using regular people with weak Al-Queda ties and a fake bombing of an American Army base to get the attention of Al-Saleem and draw him out of hiding. this is some of the more interesting and creative spy work in the film. Ferris, Hoffman and computer genius Garland (Simon McBurney) create all the people, backgrounds to fool the terrorist and Hani Salaam into thinking there is a new player in town. “Body of Lies” end up with a hostage exchange gone wrong with some deadly results and a well played twist that has you asking yourself just who can you trust?

Body of Lies is a well done espionage thriller taken from the headlines of the USA Today or right of of 60 minutes. Ridley Scott has hit another one out of the park to go along with his past success of American Gangster, Black Hawk Down and Gladiator. You have to wonder why he ever works with anyone else other than Crowe. Michael Gaston (Jericho) in a supporting role provides one of my favorite scenes in the film when Ferris takes over his office in Jordan and “castrates” his employment and takes over his office. He makes Donald trump look like Dear Abby. Body of Lies is a good film and in this day of the 10.00 movie ticket it is worth the price of admission.

[rating:4/5]

Travis:

Ridley Scott is an amazing filmmaker with a keen eye for action and a superb sense of how to hold suspense. However, despite his various incredible cinematic accomplishments. Scott doesn’t always succeed at the same level. ‘Body of Lies’ is a film that maintains Scott’s reputation but fails to rank as a “great” film. My overall opinion of the movie was positive, finding it extremely entertaining and technically very well-made. Scott has certainly developed a subtle but unique signature in his cinematography. The most immediate example of this in ‘Body of Lies’ is in his opening sequence, playing with the aerial spy-plane camera idea and maintaining this hi-tech theme throughout the film. This becomes a crucially important, but low-profile thematic element in this story of how arrogance and over-confidence can create a weakness in even the most powerful of adversaries. That adversary in ‘Body of Lies’ is the US, as the CIA struggles to gain the intellectual advantage over the extremists in the war on terror. The underdog, so to speak, are the Islamic terrorists who have abandoned technology all together, resulting in a sudden fallout of intelligence for the tech-savvy CIA.

Russell Crowe plays Ed Hoffman, the arrogant sharp-tongued CIA head of near-eastern intelligence. Crowe is truly entertaining as the fearless, slightly over-weight middle-aged CIA director. His attitude, while likely very unrealistic, is to approach everything in a casual and sarcastic manner, defusing serious situations with his own frustrating sense of humor. His man on the ground, Roger Ferris, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, finds himself a victim of this frustration as he discovers his mission in the middle East is not the only battle he must fight. Hoffman has a mind of his own and does what he wants, despite the wishes of Ferris, whose working to expose the Islamic militant leader Al-Saleem. DiCaprio does a decent job, but his character is less than dynamic as the performance is a tad flat. DiCaprio has really set a new bar for himself after ‘Blood Diamond’ and ‘The Departed’. I remember reading something about DiCaprio saying he was exhausted after shooting his brutal torture scenes, but I wonder if some of this scene got cut. What remains is still painful to watch, but is short-lived and much less brutally riveting than his “exhaustion” would have us believe.

‘Body of Lies’ is clearly a parable for the situation we have in real life, but like most films on this topic ends up more of a soap-opera version that entertains more than it teaches. The film focuses almost entirely on the relationship between Hoffman and Ferris, which is part of what makes the story so engaging. There are some sections in the film that seem to play longer than necessary, otherwise the movie moves at a good pace. Ferris’ Iranian love interest Aisha, played by Golshifteh Farahani, is strikingly beautiful in a mysterious and beautiful way that pairs well with her portrayal of the character who is smarter than she leads on. The real gem in this film is the sub-plot of Hani, the director of Jordanian intelligence, played by Mark Strong (Sunshine). The character is dark and menacing while also the most civilized and cool-tempered personality in the film. Strong nails the performance, adding a wonderful layer of uncertainty to the story that weaves shadow players and paranoia into the more straight-forward tactics of Hoffman and Ferris. I see nothing here that should garner any Oscar consideration for the recently popular favorite of the Academy, but that’s not to say ‘Body of Lies’ isn’t worth seeing. In fact, if you’re considering seeing this film… I say go see it in the theater. It’s the type of movie that’s complimented by the big screen and sound of the theater.

[rating:3.5/5]

Michelle:

Body of Lies, an anti-CIA Middle East thriller, is an around the world, old fashioned spy thriller from the 1960’s with Islamic terrorists taking the place of the KGB as the bad guys, while filled with twists and cover-ups. (It’s a lot like Tony Scott’s, Ridley’s brother, film Spy Game). Leonardo DiCaprio, as CIA-op Ferris running fast and furious through Jordan, now a bonafide movie star, has that simmering James Dean air about him. He seriously has the crap beaten out of him in the film. Russell Crowe, who gained 50 lbs for the role, takes on the supporting role of CIA head Hoffman, wearing his glasses on the end of his nose and calling all the shots from Langley. (This She-Geek hopes that doesn’t become a habit with Crowe and hopes to see his return to the strong roles with his Gladiator-type physique.) The truly amazing performance? The actor who steals the movie from superstars DiCaprio and Crowe? Mark Strong. As the suave, conniving Jordan’s Chief Intelligence Officer, he truly commands every scene he’s in. Can’t wait to see what he does with the role of “Archie” in RocknRolla.

Body of Lies is a movie that Warner Bros. greenlit because its two stars and star director, all proven commercial successes, wanted to make it. All it took was for director Ridley Scott to bring DiCaprio and Crowe together to star in his film. Along with a script from Oscar winning screenwriter William Monahan, (The Departed) Scott delivers an interesting, fast-paced thriller, with hi-tech gadgets, guns and explosions, and super cool helicopters. The powerhouse combination of DiCaprio, Crowe, and Scott make for one helluva Friday night at the movies.

[rating:4/5]