Trust no one. Deceive everyone.
Body of Lies
By Serene Ho
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Leonardo DiCarpio, Russell Crowe and Mark Strong
Official website: http://bodyoflies.warnerbros.com/
Newspapers often show us how much damage and pain terrorism can bring to common folks. Body of Lies translates that to life on the big screen. Numerous bomb blasts, Middle Eastern men who quote the words of God, in their war against the world, Americans who try to minimize the damage but yet always fail to. They smack reminiscent of reality - a reality that one might get too uncomfortable watching.
Body of Lies in a nutshell, revolves around the issue of Islamic radicalism and the troubles in curbing it. Based on the novel by former Washington Post columnist, David Ignatius, Body of Lies is about CIA Agent Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCarpio) who goes covert to track down terrorist mastermind, Al-Saleem who is responsible for the bomb blasts in Europe, that resulted in countless deaths.
With fluency in the Arabic language coupled with his streetwise ways, Ferris makes quick progress in his investigations. But yet, he is thwarted when an operation goes wrong. This results in him being dispatched by his superior Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) to head the office in Amman, Jordan.
The move is seen to be an intelligent one as Ferris quickly befriends Hani Saleem (Mark Strong), Head of Jordan's General Intelligence Department, who provides Ferris with a closer opportunity of getting to Al-Saleem. However, through a series of incidents, Hani begins to doubt Ferris, and issues the American an ultimatum to leave Jordan within the next 12 hours.
Back in the United States and with a lack of geographical proximity to the terrorists, Ferris and Hoffman hatch up a new and devious plan to get close to Al-Saleem with a return trip back to Jordan. This terribly smart and in your face plan was the exact twist that the movie needed. But,sadly though, the directorial execution was a tad disappointing.
Hidden beneath the terrorism storyline is an underlying theme regarding the issue of trust amongst fellow humans and about how it is fast disappearing in this cosmopolitan world that we live in. This injects some much-needed excitement as the audience tries to sieve out the truths from the lies out of the numerous twists and turns that occurs.
While this may not be an Oscar worthy flick, both DiCarpio and Crowe give stellar performances as Agents under the U.S intelligence. However, the one person who shines the most would have to be Mark Strong. His portrayal as the Head of Jordan's General Intelligence Department has the right balance of intelligence, intuitiveness, suaveness, charm and secrets to make you sit up and take notice.
Despite the various delicious elements and talented actors that have been thrown into the movie, at 128 minutes, Body of Lies is a tad too long and draggy with too many sub-plots that could have been done without. Even with the good visual effects and fantastic acting, the film is nothing more than your usual run-of-the-mill standard action flick. It might rouse your interest initially but that excitement is unable to be sustained.
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