‘Body of Lies’ is Forgettable, Conventional, and Very Disappointing
-----Director Ridley Scott has developed a reputation for making interesting, and always professionally quality films. In the newest feature of his, he’s got the acting talents of Leonard DiCaprio and Russell Crowe behind him. Sounds amazing, but was it really necessary to make Crowe beefy and to have DiCaprio sport that weird blob of facial hair? Whatever, it’s Ridley Scott; so it couldn’t be bad…could it?
-----In typical CIA-movie fashion, ‘Body of Lies’ follows around a trail of evidence as CIA Operative Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) attempts to infiltrate terrorist operations in the Middle East. With the instruction and red tape of his handler Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) he’ll do whatever he has to do and go wherever he has to go to bring them down. Sound familiar? Well, it should considering that’s the synopsis of just about every other CIA film made in the last decade.
-----Leonardo DiCaprio is undeniably intense as he continues to expand upon his recently strong body of work. He saves many scenes, but unfortunately his efforts only do enough to make this film an intricately made and scarcely bearable two hours. Anything else is left in the dust. Russell Crowe is unpleasantly out of shape as DiCaprio’s bureaucratic homeland handler. Why he felt he needed to put on the weight to sell the suburban dad role is beyond me, because an actor of his caliber could convince most filmgoers of just about anything despite his appearance. He also puts on a southern accent to go with the thickness. Despite some good chemistry and witty dialogue with DiCaprio, the role still isn’t worthy of the dedication and time put into it by Crowe. He agreeably doesn’t have much to do playing the somewhat selfish realist Ed Hoffman. This, like many other aspects of the film is tragically forgettable to the point you’ll wander why so many Hollywood big shots got involved with this one.
-----The film is excellent and sharp from a technical standpoint. The locations and brutality are all believable, not to mention DiCaprio’s strong leading performance. Now if only the film weren’t so conventional and forgettable. It’s not conventional in the sense you can call every shot, but it doesn’t dare to go where previous CIA films dared not. It seems to play everything in the safe zone of storytelling, and I’ve really come to expect more from Ridley Scott and the all-star leads. Scott’s 2007 hit ‘American Gangster’ suffered form a very similar diagnosis. Excellently acted, produced, and directed, but not daring or original enough to be memorable. That film, however, was based off of a true story whereas ‘Body of Lies’ has no excuse for its basic and unmemorable story.
-----The whole movie seems like a dutiful exercise for Scott, not pushing the bounds of originality or storytelling, just effectively repeating everything that’s been done before and making it look good as Scott flaunts his technical execution. Back to positives; script aside, the film has a very gritty and sharp feel to it, effectively using simple locations for believable scenes. The music is however, like most of the film, forgettable, making ‘Body of Lies’ a body of good looking scenes that amount to nothing.
-----DiCaprio fans should be pleased that the streak of excellent acting has continued, and Ridley Scott devotees will probably feel his work has continued steadily too. I, however, expect more from the man who brought us genre defining films like ‘Gladiator.’ Unfortunately, it seems Scott’s settling for lesser heights now, making films that merely add to an endless number of titles that only provide entertainment for the fanatics of their respective genre.
