moviereview - Body of Lies

BODY OF LIES

	A major terrorist cell is traced to Jordan. CIA operative Roger Ferris is sent to take it down in an operation that leads to a clash of cultural and poltical will.	score 3	moviereview rates films from 1 (unwatchable) to 5 (unmissable)
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Cast
Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Ali Suliman, Vince Colosimo

Director
Ridley Scott

Screenwriter
William Monahan

Country
USA

Rating / Running Time
MA / 123 minutes

Australian Release
October 2008

Official Site

Global conflict emanating from the Middle East is a tricky affair. We know this because Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) says us much in an impassioned speech to serious government figures. He argues that the enemy has dumped technology and is virtually impossible to trace. Consequently, they are poised to bring our world to an end. His point is underlined when a bomb explodes in Manchester. Another decimates Amsterdam’s flower market.

So starts Ridley Scott’s response to Syriana by way of The Kingdom. He signals intent with the title and follows through with some brutal attitude. There are no innocents in a story that is a dishdasha wearing, head-busting cop drama: An Amman Gangster if you will. Hoffman’s man on the ground is Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio), an honourably calculating killer: part Bourne, part Bond. Linked by spy planes and mobile phones, the pair work from opposite sides of the globe to cut the invisible head from an invisible enemy.

Scott knows how to command attention and if Body Of Lies is anything, it’s attention grabbing. From gut-wrenching, bone-crunching violence to electrifying camera angles that unite Hoffman in his suburban command centre with Ferris on the streets of Iraq, there’s a lot to catch the eye. There's also an appealing layer of cultural détente that acknowledges the place of Islam in Islamic affairs. Yet it's marred by a frustration that, partly led by the contradiction of Hoffman’s lo-tech speech and Scott’s hi-tech infatuation, Body of Lies fails to catch the brain. At least, not in the right way.

Perhaps scriptwriter William Monahan (The Departed) lifted too many ideas from the best-seller by David Ignatius. Perhaps he draws the audience too close, forcing questions too large for this multiplex sized entertainment. Certainly there’s a looseness that forces Hoffman to explain what the film doesn't: “Nobody is innocent in this Ferris,” he says. That sort of thing. Coupled with the realisation that Middle East misery has become Hollywood fodder, gnawing disquiet unbuckles the filmmakers’ considerable efforts and forces Body Of Lies to the sideline.

// COLIN FRASER