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"Don't worry, not yours."ĭiCaprio is a vital, engaging leading man - the lightweight pretty boy of his "Titanic" days is long gone - but throughout "Body of Lies" he's forced to do what Scott keeps doing with the camera, the editing and the soundtrack: He pushes. Even so, the movie is best in its little details: Ferris (DiCaprio) survives a terrorist bombing but has hard white bits of matter stuck in his arms that have to be removed. In its overall outlook, "Body of Lies" is ideologically jumbled, but as a statement from our time, maybe that's appropriate. He's a character of conscience and refinement, set up in contrast to his slovenly American counterpart (Crowe).
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Tall, impeccably dressed and with the self-command of a lord, Strong dominates the handful of scenes he's in. Mark Strong plays the Jordanian official, and if you want to see an actor lift up a movie just by walking onto the screen, check out Strong's performance. If there's an overarching story, it has to do with the CIA's pursuit of a high-ranking terrorist, a pursuit aided by a Jordanian intelligence minister.
#BODY OF LIES MOVIE REVIEW SERIES#
The film is arranged as a series of disparate missions. They're screwing up the war on terror because they don't know anything and they don't care. The second is that the Washington bureaucrats, motivated by political concerns, give orders that are destructive in human terms, and counterproductive in strategic terms. The first is that the agents on the ground know a lot more than their comfortable superiors in Washington. Based on a novel by David Ignatius, the movie has two fairly compelling ideas that it keeps hammering over and over. Once that realization settles in and the accompanying mild despair is overcome, there are things to appreciate. Instead, it plays like a slightly muddled intellectual exercise, illustrated by a few explosions.
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And a few drum machines going to make it seem like something's happening that matters. Russell Crowe, as his chubby, complacent boss, talking back calmly. This makes for a movie experience in which the viewer sits patiently for about 45 minutes waiting for the story to kick in, only to realize, oh. But his point of view remains distant, and so does the audience. OK, so he sounds nervous and curses at his boss over a cell phone when things go bad. The stakes are low and the direct consequences to him are minor. DiCaprio, as the American operative on the ground, cares about his job, but for at least two-thirds of the movie, nothing is on the line for him. Yet, all that can barely make up for the one thing "Body of Lies" lacks, a story that makes it feel personal. The locations are exotic and dangerous, and they're presented with a feeling for the customs and behaviors of the people who live there. "Body of Lies" has almost everything - a top-notch director (Ridley Scott), major stars (Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe) and a compelling subject, counterterrorist espionage in the Middle East. And what’s any movie without a good ol’ romantic sub plot? After one of the many injuries that Roger Ferris sustains he is taken to a small hospital where he meets the nurse (Golshifteh Farahani), who becomes Ferris’ love interest.To hear Mick LaSalle talk about movies, listen to his weekly podcast at /podcasts.
#BODY OF LIES MOVIE REVIEW PLUS#
Plus there’s the small matter of trying to infiltrate an Al Qaeda faction, led by Al Saleem, to stop the string of bombings occurring across Europe. It then deals with his struggle with the war on terrorism, all while he attempts to deal with keeping both his American ally, Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe), and local ally, Head of the Jordanian Intelligence Hani Salaam (Mark Strong), informed and content with progress. It’s based on the best selling book by David Ignatius and, following the war in Iraq, tells the story of CIA operative in the Middle East, Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio). In Body of Lies we have a regular man in an irregular position and we get to se how he adapts and changes accordingly. With all the new Bourne and Bond films relying on the seemingly super-human agents who can take worlds of abuse and still stand strong with no emotion, it’s a nice change of pace to see an espionage flick where the main protagonist actually shows some human traits, such as a conscience and emotion. In the world of spies, where trusting your ally can often be more dangerous than trusting your enemy, the CIA is in a race against time against a new extremist terrorist faction. Deceit is the name of the game in Ridley Scott’s new espionage-fuelled thrill ride Body of Lies.