THE POPCORN REEL FILM REVIEW/"Body Of Lies"
Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio as
sometimes antagonistic CIA operatives in Ridley Scott's film "Body Of Lies",
which opened today in the U.S. and Canada. (Photo: Warner Brothers)
Oh, What A Tangled Web This Movie Weaves;
Crowe and DiCaprio Deceive In The Middle East
By
Omar P.L. Moore/October
10, 2008
"Body Of Lies" could have summoned up some food for thought about the perilous
landscape in Iraq and neighboring countries and the U.S. government's reaction
to it, but instead its director Ridley Scott muddies the waters not with a
complex, thought-provoking film but with a scattershot, exhaustive political
thriller that sprawls out of control.
Mr. Scott is great at visuals in his films and "Body Of Lies" is filled with
many, though what it is not filled with is narrative coherence or adhesion.
Based on real life CIA operative Roger Ferris, whom Washington Post writer David
Ignatius chronicles in his 2007 book, the film tracks a self-confident Ferris
(Leonardo DiCaprio) uncovering terrorist maneuvers in Jordan and Iraq.
Ferris is endeavored to the task of destabilizing them while on the ground;
thousands of miles away in Langley, Virginia, his boss, chief operative Ed
Hoffman (Russell Crowe) is sabotaging, or at least engaging in, a dirty little
war of his own. The film only works as an elementary expose of
ego-enriched men getting in the way of their own agendas, though one of them
frequently forgets that he is on the same team.
"Body Of Lies" shows that there is an "i" in team, but forgets that there are
two "i"s in intelligence where film story and structure is concerned.
The film vacillates back and forth from Jordan to Iraq to Denmark to Washington,
D.C. to Virginia but throughout nothing seems to stick. The characters are
hollow, especially the sloth-like Hoffman, who as played by Mr. Crowe is a
bloodless, shadowy and oblivious figure capable of multitasking both a political
destabilization and escorting his young son to the bathroom. Perhaps the
hollow aspect of Mr. Crowe's Hoffman is an obvious point in Mr. Scott's film,
but much of the rest of the film showcases Mr. DiCaprio's Ferris character being
attacked by dogs and brutally tortured. In reality Mr. Ferris may have
suffered such indignities on his person, but in this film it appears calculated
to simply shock when little else in the screenplay (written by "Departed"
Oscar-winner William Monahan) seems to work. Mr. DiCaprio took his lumps
in "The Departed" but at least his character earned the right to; here the
circumstances of the story has him wandering around into dead ends as well as
around dead bodies.
The one bright spot in the film is Mark Strong, who makes an indelible and
entertaining impression as Hani, a suited operative of a political network who
is ruthlessly skeptical as well as ruthless. Hani has purpose, and
although he doesn't engage in niceties he shows you who he is, unlike the film's
two main characters. As Hani, Mr. Strong looks uncannily like Andy Garcia,
only taller and a few pounds lighter. Mr. Strong does well here, so why
couldn't the rest of the cast.
There's a profound lack of connection to the people in this film. The
editing (by the normally brilliant Pietro Scalia) has much to do with this as
well as Mr. Monahan's script does. "Body Of Lies" could have been cut by
at least 20 minutes. The characters are barely explored; there's little
background about either Hoffman or Ferris. We don't care ultimately, even
about the misplaced romance, however sincere, between Mr. DiCaprio's Ferris and
Golshifteh Farahani's Aisha character, a nurse at a Jordianian hospital who
treats a wounded Mr. DiCaprio. Mr. DiCaprio and Ms. Farahani are
comfortable together in their onscreen romance, but in the framework of the
overall film it is little more than a sweetener amidst the violence and torture
we are literally and figuratively subjected to.
Mr. Scott excels when directing such films as "American Gangster" and "Thelma &
Louise", two relationship-type movies, but when his films are political
war-themed exercises like "Black Hawk Down", "Kingdom of Heaven" and this new
film which opened across the U.S. and Canada today, he falters.
"Body Of Lies" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for
strong violence including some torture, and for language throughout. The
film's duration is two hours and eight minutes.
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