Body of Lies: Review By MovieBuff

Its not like we haven’t seen a movie in this genre before in the last couple of years. We have Syriana, Kingdom of Heaven, Traitor, The Kingdom, and quite a few others. And none of them have been a bonofide hit. Well, this one is not going to be a hit either, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie. By far, its actually quite good.

It's not easy to describe the plot of the movie without giving too much away. We are introduced to Roger Ferris, (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is a CIA operative trying to flush out a terrorist leader named Al-Saleem in Jordan. He gets his orders from Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe), a man who feels winning is the only satisfactory outcome. Hoffman sends his orders to Ferris from the comfort of his home in the U.S. 3000 miles away from all the action. He sends his orders via cell phone from his office, from his backyard, from his daughter's soccer game, and even while eating breakfast in the kitchen table. Wow. Must be nice to be able to fight a war without actually being in the front lines. This, of course, infuriates Ferris because he’s the one in the trenches, chasing the bad guys, dodging bullets, and ducking explosions, in order to compile the much needed intelligence for Hoffman.

Meanwhile, Ferris is trying to build a working relationship with the head of the Jordanian Intelligence, Hani Salaam (Mark Strong). A relationship that is made even more difficult due to Hoffman's double-dealings and hidden agendas. The relationship between Ferris and Salaam is mostly strained due to the normalcy of the lies and deceits that accompany this profession. Even so, Salaam really wants to trust Ferris and gives him multiple opportunities to earn that trust. And through the whole ordeal, Ferris learns a thing or two about the ways of Jordanian Intelligence.

There's a good amount of substance here and a good deal to be learned about middle-eastern politics. Its observations on Jordanian intelligence in particular are very much spot-on. They take care of matters rather differently than we do. There are scenes where the film gets really dark and serious, but they completely work very well. Every second feels authentic and real. However, I left the theater feeling that few learned anything from the movie. There's a key scene at the end which is very disturbing and seriously realistic but all I heard from the twenty somethings who left the theater was how cool the torture scenes were. Even a message delivered this bluntly just isn't getting into their thick skulls. How sad. Movies are not always only about entertainment boys and girls… some actually have lessons in them.

DiCaprio has been one of the best young actors in the business for quite sometime now. He has chosen various tough roles (including this one) where an accent (Blood Diamond) or language (Body of Lies) has to be learned. His portrayal of Roger Ferris is superb and one can easily see the preparation he partook for this role. Accepting roles like this makes him a consummate professional.

Crowe delivers his performance of Hoffman with a fair amount of arrogance and a c*cky Southern drawl. This role is done rather well. One can’t resist in disliking the character for his disregard of human life, but also understand that the man does what he feels is necessary to win a war. Once at war, one needs to disassociate themselves from getting emotionally attached… something Crowe’s character has done by giving orders from thousands of miles away from the action.

The supporting cast is also amazing from Mark Strong (who I think resembles Andy Garcia quite a bit) to Oscar Isaac who plays Bassam (Ferris’ partner) to Golshifteh Farahani who plays Aisha (Ferris’ love interest). All do a wonderful job.

There are so many ways that director Ridley Scott could have screwed this up. Any other director might have chosen to make this a simple action flick, sacrificing intelligence for entertainment. Or perhaps another director could have taken this story of espionage and twisted it into a convoluted mess. But not Scott. The plot is indeed complex with many layers of deceit and treachery, but Scott never lets us lose sight of the overall picture. He tells a solid, entertaining story. Most of all, he gets amazing performances from Crowe and DiCaprio, who have not been in a picture together since one of my favorite flicks The Quick and The Dead.

The visuals were quite amazing. One just feels like he or she is in the midst of all the action IN Jordan. I’m sure most of the movie was shot on location so the visuals are pretty spot-on. The explosions, the action, the car chases, the tortures, and everything else was superbly done.

This is a political thriller and most in this genre fail in the box office. I have no doubt this one will fail too simply because of its subject matter. But trust me…. it’s a good movie. If you don’t care to see it at a theater or simply don’t want to spend 8 or 9 dollars for the movie, then wait to see it on DVD… but DO see it. You won’t feel you wasted your time.