Body of Lies: Russell and Leo Disappoint

It’s been a long time since this lady has been disappointed by two men at once, so kudos to you Mssrs. DiCaprio and Scott. I’m an old fan of you Ridley before Mike Seaver went all Christian on Growing Pains.Throw in some Russell Crowe and Seaver think we’d have a collaboration made in heaven, but not this time.

In Body of Lies, a CIA operative attempts to hunt down a terrorist leader in the Middle East. Working against him is his colleague based in the faraway land of Langley, Virginia, and the suspicious yet charismatic head of Intelligence in Jordan. Same goal, everyone going about it differently. Who to trust? Who’s lying to whom? Betrayals, set-ups, hurt feelings. Very much like high school.

The Good: DiCaprio and Crowe are excellent actors, even if we’ve seen them play these characters before. Mark Strong, as the head of Jordanian Intelligence, holds his own against the two Oscar favorites and uses his almost-but-not-quite-Andy-Garcia good looks to quietly dominate every scene he’s in.

The Bad: Ridley Scott. What happened? Going in, I worried about pacing after attempting to watch American Gangster and ending up bored out of my skull. But Ridley so rarely disappoints. See Gladiator, A Good Year, Kingdom of Heaven. A two hour movie was expected, but a movie that felt like three, and didn’t really get started until about sixty minutes in? Not so much.

The ugly: A bloated Russell Crowe and an awful dye job on Leo’s longer hair. Tragic!

Also good is the well-established dynamic between DiCaprio and Crowe, deftly illustrating current wartime questions such as whether you can really lead the battle if you’re not on the battlefield. When do we lose our perspective – when we’re too far away or too close to the action? That dynamic, and also the dynamic between DiCaprio and Strong and the issue of trust between two potential enemies and tentative allies, flesh out the story. Unfortunately, there’s no real focus on either relationship beyond a basic brush of strokes, with very little time spent on detail.

To be fair, two friends enjoyed the film (to different degrees) and would recommend the movie to others, whereas I will tell you not to watch this at night if you’ve done anything tiring during the day (like wake up) because you’re sure to fall asleep. Adaptations are difficult because of the balance between what is necessary for a movie and what is faithful to the book. Fans are known to get a little emotionally involved when a movie veers too far away from the source material (I’m pointing the finger at you, Harry Potter fans. And the fans are pointing right back at me and my copy of Order of the Phoenix. Don’t get me started!). While the impression here is an attempt preserve the layers of intensity among the relationships, the result is a long movie with extraneous scenes, requiring a little tightening around the edges.

My biggest complaint against the film was pacing and a generally unclear and late direction of the story. Assuming the audience can look past these two flaws, Body of Lies may entertain others more than it did me. Not quite action, not quite drama, it doesn’t push either far enough. With luck, after this and American Gangster, Scott has had enough of these long, slow, epic affairs and returns to films where the essential storytelling improves. Here’s to hoping that the next time around, such a strong collaboration of talent delivers a stronger film.