Body Of Lies
Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Golshifteh Farahani, Oscar Isaac, Simon McBurney
Director: Ridley Scott
128 Minutes
Warner Brothers
2008
Rating: MA15+

An somewhat interesting story about Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio), a young CIA agent operating in the Middle East attempting to catch the leader of a terrorist cell. He seems to be a character who struggles to do what is right, showing some professional courtesy to his Jordanian ally Hani (Mark Strong) while his boss Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) back home prefers the unilateral method of achieving his objectives. Given the nature of the work involved and as the title suggests, deceptions are the norm from all parties.

In almost every respect, Body Of Lies is a well executed production. The narrative is interesting enough, the pace is reasonable and not entirely predictable. The acting is natural enough, in that sense convincing. DiCaprio plays his usual self, and while he is not the most dynamic of actors he is sufficiently effective in this role. Crowe, on the other hand, plays Ferris's annoyingly arrogant boss with conviction. Perhaps the most notable performance is Italian-German Mark Strong as Hani, a charismatic conversationalist who knows his trade.

The cinematography by Alexander Witt, together with the seamless editing by Pietro Scalia (Black Hawk Down) is fitting - not too flashy but with a kinetic sense of energy nonetheless. The contrast in the desert and urban areas is almost perfect. Of particular interest are the aerial and satellite surveillance shots which blends in with the rest of the film seamlessly. Marc Streitenfeld (American Gangster) composed a fitting soundtrack, a mix of fast-paced functional techno, and Arabic pieces. Generally, nothing is overdone or out of place.

As expected, like Scott's Kingdom Of Heaven (but in a less overt manner), this film tries to be politically inoffensive by having varying Middle Eastern characters while not being too critical of the American perspective either. It even, in a mild manner, browses the cultural differences between the Middle East and the West but eschews a deeper investigation of the divide.

While Body Of Lies is overall a well balanced production, it is not a film one might buy on DVD. In itself, one would be reasonably satisfied walking out of the cinema. As a Ridley Scott film however, you may expect more and in that sense it is a little disappointing. As for the narrative, one could only imagine that the occupational hazards are much more severe in reality. It would have certainly been a more thrilling and captivating feature if there were more backstabbing mind games and multi-layered disinformation between the parties involved and a more thought-provoking look at the morality of war.