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Review: “Body of Lies”
By Kyle | October 12, 2008
The Long War
Kyle Smith review of “Body of Lies”
2.5 stars out of 4
129 minutes/Rated R
Iraq. I’m sick of it. You’re tired of it. In the new espionage thriller “Body of Lies,” Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe are sick and tired of it, and our whole country is fed up with “the moment of silence at the ball games,” as Crowe says in the role of the head of the Middle East branch of the CIA.
“Body of Lies,” by director Ridley Scott pays audiences the compliment of delivering consistently intelligent fare, often about real (or at least real-ish) figures. He dares to get across a palpable sense of Iraq fatigue. Which is another way of saying that Scott practically invites the audience to go see the talking Chihuahua picture instead.
The movie does better in atmosphere than it does in the mechanics of its action scenes, which range from improbable to extremely improbable. DiCaprio, wearing a deeply suspicious chin beard meant to make him look like an Arab, plays Ferris, a spy posted in Iraq on the trail of an inflammatory cleric, Al Saleem, who is promising much mayhem. Barking orders at him from Langley is Crowe’s Hoffman, a chunky, chuckling Southerner in a brush cut who waddles around his kids’ soccer games ordering Ferris into increasingly hairy situations, sometimes without telling Ferris exactly what’s going on.
The effort to make Crowe and DiCaprio equally important figures doesn’t really work; Crowe is effectively a mere voice on the phone and we don’t really even need to lay eyes on his character, who keeps flying in to meet with Ferris for superfluous personal sitdowns.
The movie is determined to set up a somewhat forced contrast by showing Crowe in comically un-dangerous suburban settings as DiCaprio dodges bullets, but surely the experienced desk man and the gutsy, Arabic-speaking field man are both vitally important.
Ferris goes to Jordan to share notes with the head (Mark Strong) of Jordanian intelligence, a dapper Machiavellian who may or may not be trustworthy and, in the hospital after one of many near-fatal attacks, he begins to chat up a quiet Iranian nurse (Golshifteh Farahani, a find) who is so shy she can barely return his gaze. Dating her could be dangerous for them both.
The operations keep hitting dead ends, which gives the movie a start-and-stop rhythm. At the halfway point, Ferris hits on a fascinating scheme: he decides to set up a fake terrorist group, use it to bomb a real American building in Turkey and have the fake terrorists claim credit for the attack — a move he hopes will draw Al-Saleem out to hook up with his newfound brothers in Jihad. What makes the idea even more bizarre is that Ferris is going to create a terrorist identity for a real person who doesn’t even know he’s being manipulated.
Tossing an entirely innocent person into a deadly game also poses a moral quandary, though it’s one that Hoffman doesn’t lose any sleep over. In one of many brilliant lines from the script by William Monhan (who won an Oscar for The Departed), Hoffman asks, “You gotta decide which side of the cross you on? I need nailers, not hangers.” (Monahan has a brilliant take on the fatalism of men in peril — another character, who is about to enter a possible redoubt of jihadists, says, “I am not getting my head cut off on the Internet. If something happens, shoot me.”)
“Body of Lies” is in the same category of engrossing action thrillers as last year’s Jamie Foxx-Jennifer Garner movie “The Kingdom,” but the earlier film, unashamedly patriotic, didn’t wring its hands like this one, which begins with an ominous quotation from Auden about how “those to whom evil is done do evil in return” and more or less takes the position that America has undermined its claim to moral superiority by stooping to the other side’s level.
The things that provide the most entertainment in “Body of Lies” have worked in a lot of other movies: the tech gizmos. As in the Jason Bourne series, experts call shots from thousands of miles away because they can watch anything in the world via satellites (it’s a comfort to know the CIA has figured out how to use Google Earth) or launch helicopter gunships to save Ferris from getting too singed in the hellfire. We’re assured at one point that U.S. forces won’t fail because “we have, uh, ninjas waiting.”
For his part, Hoffman may not need a flak jacket but he has his own ordeals, too: As he tells Ferris: “I have to take the kids to see “The Lion King.” Again. Never have kids.”
Topics: Iraq, Movies, Politics |
October 12th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
I would suggest renting Three Days of the Condor instead of shelling out money to see Body Of Lies.
October 12th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
As I pointed out on another blog, William Monahan’s script handling of Ignatius’s material is largely at fault. The man behind the “Departed” can’t tell the difference between Islamist and the CIA. He jettisoned the ‘decoy agent’ that is at the heart of the CIA deception; he edited the real terror campaign, several attacks throughout Europe. Hoffman is not supposed to be Southerner, yet he’s played like Jeffrey Wiegand goes to Langley; maybe someone like Phillip Seymour Hoffman, would be a better fit. Di Caprio is nothing like Tom Farris. The whole last climax of the novel; was jettisoned, Al-Salaam was in fact a creation of the GID; to draw in AQ. Lines like “Osama gave up Zarquawi” are the direct opposite of the truth; which was the early success of the tribal awakening.
October 13th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
“I would suggest renting Three Days of the Condor”
I would suggest renting Condorman versus any of these anti-Iraq movies.
October 13th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
perhaps this movie isn’t completely anti-Iraq (read the review more completely).
October 13th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Does anyone look more unnatural with a beard than DiCapprio? He’s like a bearded lady in an old freakshow. Perhaps someday Leo’s beard, Nic Cage’s “hair”, and Neil Diamond’s chest shag can all be put in some horrible museum together.
October 13th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
with Sandra Bernhard’s mustache.
October 13th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Why do they keep putting effeminate DiCaprio in manly roles? He always looks like a kid wearing daddy’s clothes. And spare “Departed”(an ensemble cast rather than a star vehicle) his movies have pretty much lost money since “Titanic”. And even there the star was a sinking ship via CGI.
Also, every movie he’s in spare “Titanic”(his contribution being drowning) and Departed”(his contribution being reminding you in each frame he was surrounded and helped by real actors while being poorly miscast as an Irish cop/thug) has pretty much sucked. “Blood Diamond”? That Thai beach movie? WTF?
October 14th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Kyle writes well and I agree with him on most of his reviews. But those who ridicule Leonardo’s performance(s) are simply retarded. They do not know what true characterization and performances are all about. How could you under-rate Blood diamond!! are you a Chihuahua fan?? Body Of Lies is seriously the best Iraq war based movie and one more of Ridley Scott’s achievements.
October 14th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Kunal: It is impossible to under-rate “Blood Diamond.”
October 14th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
I am not retarded. I might even watch “Body..” if there’s no hockey games on some cold winter evening. But damn if I’m leaving the house to pay for it.
If I watch “Blood Diamond” or “The Beach” ever again, my grey matter might drip out my ear. “Catch Me If You Can” was decent. “Gangs of NY” and “The Aviator” were both instances of miscasting DeCaprio.They’re decent movies, but you’re reminded every frame that this is a scrawny girlie man pretending to be a tough guy. If you cast Crowe or Matt Damon or Robert Downey, they work a whole bunch better.
IMDB indicates Martin Scorcese has a project with Decaprio cast as Teddy Roosevelt. Does Scorcese have a career death wish or a big ass pile of eff you money?And who would finance another such instance of clear miscasting?
October 15th, 2008 at 2:16 am
ok, I have one question. Does anyone out there see this movie and think about what if this truth is really closer to reality than we give it credit for?
instead of critiquing the movie for its deliverance of acting skills and action scenes what about asking the really tough question, what does it really mean? aren’t there other people out there that work for government contractors and wonder? many of the details struck me as being very close to tiny things that I catch glimpses of at work. Like the location Amman, I know the company I work for has action going on there. I see this movie and it makes me want to know the truth. Is the Iraq war really occurring because government contractors make tons of money being there? Does Osama actually work for the US through a round about way? Why are movies like this made? Certainly not to make tons of money at the box office. What if somehow those in power get off seeing their work produced on the big screen? Doesn’t anybody care about these things? Who is really in charge of this situation? This movie really impressed upon me how little I really know and little those around really know or care.
October 15th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
ingeniousidea,
Movies like this are made to trick people into thinking this is all real. See people like to think everything is a giant conspiracy it makes us all feel like we’re part of something when in fact most things are exactly what they appear to be and there is no Oz pulling levers behind a curtain. The left in particular gets an inflated sense of self importance from thinking everything is a conspiracy and their angry blogging will expose it; ie 9/11, Aids, etc.
With that said I’m sure there is much that goes on that we do not want to know about. But most of this is yet more lefty “America is Evil” hand wringing. That should probably cue up the ever lovely Donnie.
October 15th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Kunal,
You would have to be a text happy teenage girl to think Leo is a great performer. He was fortunate in his early career to be cast well (Gilbert Grape, Basketball Diaries) but most of his performances are indefensible. Had you played a drinking game during Gangs of New York where you took a drink every time Leo changed his accent I think you would have died before the end of disk one.