Body of Lies
Review
by Anthony Morris
More Body of Lies : Crowe & Dicaprio Interview | Second Opinion Review
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There is a certain kind of thriller that puts all
the pieces in place, but somewhere along the line forgets to be
actually thrilling.
Body
of Lies is as good an example of this as you could hope
for : Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a CIA agent getting his hands
dirty (and his friends blown up) in Iraq while his boss Ed Hoffman
(Russell Crowe) lurks around Washington talking up the importance of an
endless War On Terror.
Thanks to intel Ferris rescues from a fire, he gets posted to Jordan to
run an operation against a terrorist safe house.
He wants to trust and work with the suave head of the local security
services (Mark Strong), while Hoffman wants to use him up like he uses
up everyone else - including, we gradually come to suspect, Ferris
himself.
The plot that follows is a wave of set-ups, blown covers and
double-dealings that all seem very complicated but never quite manage
to add up to anything coherent, let alone all that
interesting.
That's a problem for a thriller, but not always a fatal one so long as
there is something more going on somewhere - whether it be a romance or
a broader message about how America conducts it's global affairs.
Director Ridley Scott takes a half-hearted stab at both but never
really makes a fist of either.
The romance between Ferris and a local nurse never develops much (the
pair being unable to touch in a Muslim country doesn't help), while
Hoffman's self-serving conduct never signifies anything past him being
an arsehole. Even the way he conducts his spy business over the phone
while driving around his kids is nothing more than a quirk.
This is a film that keeps itself very busy while going pretty much
nowhere.
3.5 out
of 5
Body of
Lies
Australian release: 9th October,
2008
Official
Site: Body of Lies
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell
Crowe, Mark Strong
Director: Ridley Scott
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