Director Ridley Scott’s latest, a Mideast thriller with as harsh a streak of anti-Americanism as you’ll ever see, has bigger problems than politics: it’s just plain boring. You keep waiting for the story to kick in and instead the movie aimlessly lurches from scene to scene for 129 minutes until it all adds up to nothing more than twists too cute by half and a dry, sober lecture about how we’re no better than the terrorists.
Leonard DiCaprio plays Ferris, a CIA operative already disillusioned and cynical about his agency and mission. Stationed in Iraq to gather intelligence on al-Qaeda, he happens upon a lead that uncovers a major terrorist, Al Saleem, operating out of Jordan, planning something big and cleverly working under the massive U.S. electronic surveillance net. Back at Langley, Ferris’s boss, Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe), barks orders over a Blackberry and keeps watch on everything using god’s eye cameras attached to satellites and unmanned aerial drones.
In Jordan, Ferris befriends the Intelligence Chief, Hani Salaam (Mark Strong), and asks his help in supplying the manpower necessary to stake out Al Saleem’s suspected safehouse. Salaam agrees but is too sophisticated and controlling to not work his own angles, which turns out to be a good thing because Hoffman’s myopic determination to follow his own agenda constantly creates chaos and nearly gets everyone killed.
The story’s biggest problem is believability. At no time does DeCaprio’s Ferris display any unique talent that would explain why a man like seasoned agent like Hoffman would put up with him. At times a little warmth kindles between them, but not enough to offset the relentless antagonism. It’s conflict for conflict’s sake and it cripples the credibility of the central relationship.
To his credit, DiCaprio’s not bad as Ferris but there are certain situations that have him in over his head and never should’ve been written into the script. There’s a scene where Ferris tries to pass himself off as an Iraqi and another where he pulls rank and takes over the U.S. intelligence post in Jordan. You have to shape the screenplay to your actors and Hollywood needs to take a step back into the real world and understand that it takes very little for DiCaprio to come off like a boy playing grown up.
Crowe’s fine as Hoffman but not in the film much. Most of his scenes take place in his middle class, suburban home where he goes about the business of taking care of his young children as he orders Ferris to do awful things over a cell phone. Having your main players act out most of their scenes over a phone doesn’t put a whole lot of thrill in thriller, and it doesn’t help that there’s no pop or spice in the dialogue — just one seasoned cynic patiently explaining the facts of life to a young, angry cynic. It’s all pretty cliched and proves that more important to the storytellers than a good story was an opportunity to beat us over the head symbolizing Hoffman’s — and therefore America’s – disconnect with the war.
The film opens sanctimoniously with a thud of a quote that portends the America bashing to come; something to the effect of “those to whom evil is done do evil in return,” which translated from the original dialect of elitist means moral equivalency. We then cut to Ferris suffering a flashback where the subject he helped interrogate is beaten to death. And this is just the beginning. Dishonest moments like this are liberally sprinkled throughout. Everything from Ferris refusing to defend the liberation of 25 million Iraqis to his being told “Welcome to Guantanamo,” before being tortured.
You would think a director as skilled as Ridley Scott could overcome what’s obviously a raging case of Bush Derangement Syndrome and put together a watchable and exciting film. But Body of Lies is a narrative mess with a herky-jerky plot that never gets started, flat performances and action scenes all without a hint of imagination. Every element that might make for a watchable film, some compelling characters, and a well paced story is subjugated to a left-wing telegram written to remind us America’s no better than al-Qaeda and that thanks to Bush (though his name is never mentioned) whatever happens from here on we pretty much got coming.
Earlier this the week, Roger L. Simon interviewed me for PajamasTV and asked who I thought would be better for Hollywood, Obama or McCain. My answer was Obama. I explained that if McCain wins it will be four more years of another kind of Derangement Syndrome which means four more years of lousy films. Should Obama win, however, maybe, just maybe, all of this fanatical hate will finally be satisfied and allow The People Who Make The Movies to go back to focusing on their craft instead of taking their petty frustrations out on the rest of us … at ten bucks a pop.
Yup, one positive of the Obama presidency might just be that movies become fun again.
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