Ryan McNeil
I first saw the trailer for BODY OF LIES back in July. I can clearly remember my immediate reaction – “Looks interesting, but what the hell is it about?”. Interestingly, the movie opens with a well delivered monologue by Russel Crowe that spells everything out perfectly. I had to wonder to myself, why wasn’t that used in the trailer? It was a sign of things to come, as such poor direction sets BODY OF LIES up as not much more than a missed opportunity.
Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio)is a CIA operative in the middle east. He is fighting hard in the War On terror, even though the rules of war are changing before his very eyes. His enemies look like his friends, and his friends are never above betraying him to his enemies. Watching over his every move is his CIA commanding officer Ed Hoffman (Russel Crowe). While Ferris is sizzling in the desert sun and dodging bullets, Hoffman sits back in suburban Virginia and calls the shots from air conditioned offices. The two couldn’t be more different, but have to put differences aside to achieve anything.
In an effort to catch a big fish, Ferris reaches out to the Jordanian Chief of Intelligence, Hani Salaam (Mark Strong). Salaam is impressed by Ferris’ inteligence, courtesy, and character. He agrees to help him in ways he has not offered the CIA before. However, the offer comes with one string attached – Ferris can never lie to him.
In effect, Ferris is now playing for two sides in an effort to catch a common enemy. he is working for and with two very different commanding officers, and it’s only a matter of time before one gets squarely in the way of the other.
I count myself as a fan of Ridley Scott, and actually enjoy many of his more recent films like BLACK HAWK DOWN, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, and AMERICAN GANGSTER. However, he manages to let BODY OF LIES get away from him, and misses what could have been a great opportunity to say something about the war on terror. In the beginning, the movie takes its time in illustrating how the enemy has abandonned the use of cell phones and email in co-ordinating their efforts. It takes a thick red marker, and circles the fact that the enemmy’s step back to old world communication is what has made stopping them so much harder.
However, rather than running with that, the movie downshifts into a straight-up double-crossing espionage story, and not a terribly good one. With an unneccessary love interest, and a bad reversal of character by Ferris at a key moment, the movie turns exploitive and dull. Strangely enough, the movie becomes evocative of 2001’s SPY GAME directed by Ridley Scott’s younger brother Tony – except that I liked Tony’s movie much more.
When AMERICAN GANGSTER was released last fall, Scott took a lot of heat for casting two Oscar winners in the lead roles, but only giving them one scene in which to play off each other. At the time, I argued the merit of the decision, since to me it felt like the only point in which the two should meet, and played itself out as a good scene to boot. Well, Scott clearly believed in the decision too, since once again, we get two big ticket actors in the lead with precious little chance to play off each other. Most of their interaction is by phone, and in such a manner that made me start to wonder if Crowe was actually Charlie, and DiCaprio one of his angels.
While the movie isn’t terrible, and does indded have a few great moments to it, it adds up to a wasted chance to say something about a conflict that is seven years old with no end in sight. It never shakes that level of identity crisis it has had since that first trailer. As such I’m sorry to say it will get lumped in with all the other Post-9/11 movies that have failed to connect. Better luck next time Ridley.
Gave the movie a B-. Wasnt as great as I was expecting it to be, but still pretty good
This movie is definitely one the best of 2008
Don’t know if I’d say it was best of ’08 material Lucy, but I definitely liked it.
PS – Thanks for reading!