Running time: 128 minutes
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Golshifteh Farahani, Ali Suliman
Rating 6 out of 10
If it says Ridley Scott on the package, then you pretty much know what the contents are going to be. Films such as American Gangster and Black Hawk Down, though well crafted and slick, are also soulless and formulaic. Body of Lies is yet another example. It looks impressive enough but, despite the fact it encompasses the important topic of terrorism, it lacks substance. You feel it should say something other than look at me, I'm so shiny.
Based on the novel by former Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, with a script by Oscar-winning screenwriter William Monahan (The Departed), Body of Lies pulls you into the strife-torn world of the middle-east, where violence is a way of life, and death. Then, half way through, it does an about switch and effectively becomes a love story, leaving you scratching your head and questioning the film's true identity.
Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a top US top intelligence operative who travels the world undertaking the most dangerous assignments. He has a fractious relationship with CIA veteran Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) who he relies upon for information via phone from America. Hoffman is working with Ferris to track down a terrorist leader who is based in Jordan and has been responsible for a number of attacks in the west.
Ferris, who speaks fluent Arabic and possesses a beard that allows him to blend in, uses his knowledge of local culture and customs to make connections and glean information while the insensitive and blunt Hoffman prefers to use threats. The bristling relationship between the two is one of the film's more absorbing elements, though Crowe's affected acting style makes the scenes more comical than intended.
The story is unfocussed and meanders its way along, introducing a number of characters of indeterminate importance. At the point when you wonder where it's all going, Ferris meets the alluring Aisha (Golshifteh Farahani), a nurse who risks hostility from her relatives and countrymen for fraternizing with an American. However, it's not as much as Ferris risks when his relationship with Aisha is used to put his life in danger.
DiCaprio delivers another excellent performance as the tough and smart Ferris, but his efforts fail to compensate for the film's vacuity and Crowe's over-acting. Even though it deals in the currency of terrorism, exploiting the public's raw nerves with several scenes, including a graphic one of torture, Body of Lies lives up to its title by implying an insight into the murky world of middle-eastern terrorism when all it shows is that Scott is capable of making nothing out of something.
Kevin Murphy
Based on the novel by former Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, with a script by Oscar-winning screenwriter William Monahan (The Departed), Body of Lies pulls you into the strife-torn world of the middle-east, where violence is a way of life, and death. Then, half way through, it does an about switch and effectively becomes a love story, leaving you scratching your head and questioning the film's true identity.
Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a top US top intelligence operative who travels the world undertaking the most dangerous assignments. He has a fractious relationship with CIA veteran Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) who he relies upon for information via phone from America. Hoffman is working with Ferris to track down a terrorist leader who is based in Jordan and has been responsible for a number of attacks in the west.
Ferris, who speaks fluent Arabic and possesses a beard that allows him to blend in, uses his knowledge of local culture and customs to make connections and glean information while the insensitive and blunt Hoffman prefers to use threats. The bristling relationship between the two is one of the film's more absorbing elements, though Crowe's affected acting style makes the scenes more comical than intended.
The story is unfocussed and meanders its way along, introducing a number of characters of indeterminate importance. At the point when you wonder where it's all going, Ferris meets the alluring Aisha (Golshifteh Farahani), a nurse who risks hostility from her relatives and countrymen for fraternizing with an American. However, it's not as much as Ferris risks when his relationship with Aisha is used to put his life in danger.
DiCaprio delivers another excellent performance as the tough and smart Ferris, but his efforts fail to compensate for the film's vacuity and Crowe's over-acting. Even though it deals in the currency of terrorism, exploiting the public's raw nerves with several scenes, including a graphic one of torture, Body of Lies lives up to its title by implying an insight into the murky world of middle-eastern terrorism when all it shows is that Scott is capable of making nothing out of something.
Kevin Murphy
