Confusing modern day politics and Hollywood movie conventions battle for screen time in Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies, the latest thriller to literally “rip from today’s headlines,” as the saying goes. The confusion of the story is apt for the fiercely labyrinthine nature of the war on terror, from the cultural barriers to the occasionally careless situational misapprehension. What this film oddly lacks is a consistent sense of urgency about it all.
That is not to say the movie is a complete bust. It is just that there are too many generic movie conventions that really refuse to give way when they should. The filmmakers may claim otherwise; as director Scott said, “It’s not James Bond with lots of people running around.” But when the protagonist, Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio), is a lone hero-type globe-trotting in multiple languages, dodging all matter of explosions and even torture, and even falling in love with a local woman, we cannot believe the situation to be as close to the bone and as far from James Bond as the movie is trying to be.
The movie opens with a massive, horrific, suicidal bombing that rips through Manchester, England, after the terrorists sense a counter-raid into their hideout. We then meet Ferris as a CIA field agent who runs around making contacts in order to dig up information on this terrorist group led by Al-Saleem (Alon Abutbul). He knows several languages and speaks Arabic fluently enough to be able to disguise himself as a local but his best efforts are often hampered by his CIA superior, Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe), who seemingly just plays by his own rules often without heeding attention to the proper intelligence and insight that Ferris provides him.
This annoys Ferris who, on the ground, believes that a stronger tie of friendship with the Jordanian intelligence chief, Hani Salaam (Mark Strong) will aid his cause. While he works closer with Salaam despite some distractions from Hoffman and somehow finds time to see a local nurse, Aisha (Golshifteh Farahani), who had earlier treated his injuries, Ferris secretly conjures up an insane plan to frame an innocent architect of being a head of a fake terrorist faction. Perhaps then, he believes, this will incite envy and jealousy in Al-Saleem’s real terrorist group and they will thus come out of hiding.
Article comments
1 - Lisa Solod Warren
I disagree. I thought DiCaprio was terrific and the film was a lot more complex and interesting than you thought it was. I am much more in line with the New Yorker review and I highly recommend this film to anyone who is interested in a beautifully acted and interesting take on the insanity of fighting terrorism today. My husband was in special ops in Vietnam and he thought the film the best of its kind made yet.
2 - Jenny from the Blog
I agree, this film was lousy and disorganized. I think Dicaprio and Crowe's performances were outstanding but that's about it. The film moved at a sluggish pace until the end and just seemed more like a long string of random events than a story.