(It is amazing how the guy reinvents himself for each role.) Ferris and Hoffman share a love-hate relationship – where the former often finds himself at odds with the capricious games, underhanded politically motivated dealings and sheer lies perpetrated by Crowe. His boss is an ex-field-operative, now shrewd and ruthless wheeler-dealer in Washington, Ed Hoffman – played by a spiteful Russell Crowe. The movie follows the life of a CIA operative Roger Ferris (DiCaprio – competent as usual) with a conscience and a human heart, as he deals with various terror groups in the Middle East. Crossing, Double-crossing and Triple-crossing…all in a days work. When both are of equal strength the result is Gladiator, when the scales are tipped in one director the product is this sleek-looking but monotonous mess.As the name suggests “Body of Lies” is about the untruthful games played by the various parties engaged in the war on terror. Ridley Scott is such a visual technician that his style often overwhelms the story. In honesty that could be said for the entire script. It is a weak subplot that it hits all the clichés on its way to the predictable outcome. Mixed into this jumbled tale of covert warfare is an awkward romance between Ferris and a Iranian nurse. The two nation’s shared goal is the capture of notorious terrorist leader “al-Saleem”. Hoffman sends Ferris to Jordan to work alongside the head of their intelligence department. After losing their best informant in a botched assignment. Back on the domestic front the operation is being led by Ed Hoffman (Crowe), the man Ferris believes is deceptive in sharing his intel on ground ops. After a string of terrorist attacks on allied nations, Ferris is actively pursuing informants to bring down a cell of bad guys. These two have an odd father-son relationship/rivalry although neither is related to the other.ĭiCaprio is Roger Ferris, a CIA field operation agent located in some of the most hellish environments on earth. Lost in this sea of jumbled narrative storytelling are two outstanding performances from the always reliable DiCaprio and the more spotty Crowe. Unlike his brother Tony, who succeed in this genre with the excellent Spy Games, Ridley lets the story start and stop then start again so frequently that the film becomes solely an exercise in visual technique and acting.

Ridley Scott’s continuing fascinating with military operations results in the mediocre spy-thriller Body of Lies.

Body of lies movie reviews