"Body of Lies" (2008) - Movie Review

The third act of “Body of Lies” cannot be more obvious to its adaptation from its novel though I cannot vouch whether novel actually is treated the same way. Despite its letdown in the third act, the film directed by Ridley Scott with uniting Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe is a fine espionage thriller with a fair share of looking at the techniques involved in this current state of handling terror. With a great deal of performance from DiCaprio and sumptuous support from Crowe, it concentrates on a CIA agent forming a bond not alone with the head operative of Jordan but also a nurse for his dried up romance.

Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) works from home and his work is to move the coins to enable operation and perform it if not perfect but cover up the CIA palm out of it. His errand boy is Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) in the Middle East running around hunting the nexus of the terrorist network Al-Saleem (Alon Aboutboul). While Ed provides the logistics support with hands free headset permanently attached to him, he does not operate with full transparency. Ferris is naïve not to understand working for a secret agency.

Ed talks during his daily chores. He is talking about the killings without any conscience to Roger in between his daughter’s soccer game and while assisting his other kid to use the rest room. He has that understanding of this work to which he has given him to not see it as a different thing from his personal life. Roger is on the field and works with a conscience which does not go well with the job description of his to be a spy. Still he believes to do his best in doing the good and in between trying to help the people who congest this disease of his acquaintance. Both men living in regions of different philosophies towards the work they do nullify each other. But the significant difference is Ed is about politics while Roger is about thriving for a harmonious existence.

In between these two are people helping, attacking and deceiving. Roger’s approach is more devious than Ed but he wants to make it right in the end. Ed knows it never can be right and he takes the plan for what it is, deceptive and effective. The satellite zoom shots are frugally used as to not play around like a kid with a new toy. It is a serious take as “Syriana” did only that it does not bite the bullet as it did when finishing the story. I found their motto to declare deception as the points of the film futile as in the current state it is redundant. The thing is the method Roger brings upon to capture the head of the group. How they make a nothing into something and how much a photo with people is enough to form a story.

The relationship of Roger with the nurse he meets, Aisha (Golshifteh Farahani) is handled with sophistication and just. The photograph shot clicks their walk and we know she will be used as the exchange deal but immediately that gets dismissed. I wish they would have left it that way. The concerning act does not seem to be placed there for a Hollywood ending but a genuine approach. It has come to the point in expecting what out of the film on its banner of publicity. The heroism as is expected out of movie like “Live Free or Die Hard” has now exists for a strong cast of actors and director lining up for a serious film to end realistically and the realism as we know is not good, not much of an obvious hope. Hence seeing the three quarters of “Body of Lies”, it is a serious film analyzing a sensitive issue in hand and when the result seems to be too good to be true, it is a letdown. It is because that we have lost hope in getting the Osama Bin Laden or any head of a terrorist group. Or more than that is the third hand information through media and every other thing has disturbed or may be cleared the idea of not believing everything.

“Body of Lies” is a Ridley Scott film and the gripe I have would be the failure of it to be a better film than it seems to. It gets everything from two serious actors in the past decade and a topic in spite of its exhausted discussion has something new to offer into that ugly world of shady activities falls off when it comes to perfection. It does not use preachy techniques nor does it exploit the violence. It is a person decided to be brutally honest while delivering his statement paused a minute for political correctness. Hence while the feel of getting the truth is out there, it does not seem to be fulfilled.