Rating: 3.5 Pulses
Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Golshifteh Farahani
Directed by Ridley Scott
Rated R
Director Ridley Scott returns to the espionage/thriller genre with his latest effort, Body of Lies. Not only is this a return to familiar territory for Scott but it is also his fourth collaboration with Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Good Year, American Gangster) and first with powerhouse Leonardo DiCaprio.
Based on David Ignatius’ 2007 novel, the film follows CIA operative Roger Ferris (DiCaprio) and his attempt to infiltrate and bring down the network of a major terrorist leader operating out of Jordan. Needing the financial and authoritative support from those in greater positions of power than himself, Ferris enlists allies in a CIA veteran (Crowe) and a figurehead inside Jordanian intelligence named Hani (Mark Strong), neither of which whom he decides he can ever fully trust.
The movie is definitely a bold effort on the part of Scott. To allude to one specific line from the film, “the situation in Iraq” is playing against his intention to make an engaging film that relies on ties to an ongoing war. Filmmakers have been churning out thrillers based in, around, or loosely on the Iraq War for five years so audiences are understandably almost as fatigued with seeing such films as they are of still reading about the conflict itself in the news every day. Scott uses his leading men to his advantage though: DiCaprio continues to delve into the intensity he’s developed over the last decade (thanks largely to his tutelage under director Martin Scorsese) while Crowe delivers a very subdued, sometimes snake-like performance.
The plot itself will not revolutionize the genre but one of the most impressive facts is that Scott worked with screenwriter William Monahan (The Departed) to make this a mostly bias-free story. Scott’s trademark visceral cuts in the action definitely keep the blood of the picture flowing. The acting is top-notch while the atmosphere and character of the Middle East are warmly captured while simultaneously not disconnecting itself so much from American cinema that it feels too foreign to be relative on a personal level.
