A surprisingly engaging thriller, Ridley Scott’s “Body Of Lies,”was far more compelling film than we expected and certainly about a million times better than the film’s terrible poster which does a real disservice to the movies quality which is pretty top-notch, if yes, a little been-there-done that.
A well-crafted cat and mouse game of intrigue, while the film doesn’t say anything tremendously deep about terrorism, international politics or Middle Eastern affairs, it doesn’t really attempt to and sticks closely to trying to entertain and stir which it exceeds at. Yeah, it’s no ‘Bourne’ and it’s certainly no “Syriana,” but what is these days?
As evinced in movies like “Black Hawk Down,” Ridley knows how to expertly execute action, battle sequences and disarming combat scenes and ‘Lies’ is no different.
If anything, the picture is a political film about work politics centering on the up and coming CIA operative (a surprisingly capable and believable Leonardo DiCaprio who’s finally starting to feel like a man instead of a boy) and his egomaniacal, weasel-y power-grubbing boss (Russell Crowe) who cockblocks and undermines all his authority from the safety of his armchair in Washington.
Having proven as far back as “The Insider” that he’s possessed real chops, Russell Crowe is particularly interesting and delightful when he’s subverting his A-list, leading man stature, so naturally his role as the boorish, schlubby jackass CIA boss is his best acting turn in seemingly forever. A Best supporting Oscar nom for this excellent (and surprisingly funny) portrayal? It wouldn’t surprise us – we wouldn’t be mad at that.
The gist of the plot (which admittedly sounds thin) is how these two CIA ops work together and against themselves to uncover an Al Qaeda offshoot terrorist organization in Jordan with the assistance of their intelligence agency (deftly represented by Mark Strong, who’s really good in the picture). They devise an ill-conceived plan to create their own fake terrorist organization in hopes that the real target will try and make contact and reveal himself, which meets with disastrous results
While its second half isn’t as taut as its fast-moving first half (a halfhearted and unrealized love story that develops around DiCaprio’s character isn’t a wise choice) and while the film does seem rather predictable territory for Scott, it also feels much more aware of its limitations than say, “American Gangster” (his last film) which suffered from delusions of epic grandeur (and was unnecessarily long).
“Body Of Lies” is no Best Picture contender, nor is it Scott’s best work, but its refreshingly effective in its aims to twist, entertain and engross its viewer for two hours. [B]
