Middle East Madness from Ridley Scott

By Adam Pope October 16, 2008 Issue

Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies succeeds in two things simultaneously—highlighting the technical finesse and cutting-edge technology of the American war machine and making the most dangerous region on Earth seem boring. The CIA uses a combination of covert spy planes and complicated motion tracking hardware to allow us to see things from a fancy control room comprised of large LCD monitors and whirring gyros and gizmos, yet for the most part the audience remains limited to the sandy cityscapes of the Middle East. The scenes that allow us to take part in this futuristic voyeurism are engaging and exciting, and surprisingly sparse. Scott instead chooses to show us the dramatic adventures of his 007-esque agent (Leonardo DiCaprio), which for the most part just are not that captivating.

The film takes us all over the Middle East with Roger Ferris (DiCaprio), a spy with a conscience operating freelance and frequently butting heads with his callous, detached handler Ed Hoffman (an overweight Russell Crowe). Ferris is tasked with the apprehension of Al Saleem, the leader of a terrorist sect that is on equivalent grounds with Al Qaeda in terms of overall global villainy, and is constantly forced to sacrifice the people Middle East Madness from Ridley Scott Oct. 17: Sex Drive makes it official. With the release of this teen sex comedy, Losing Your Virginity displaces Revenge as the all-time done-to-death movie premise…Mark Wahlberg is looking for revenge in the video-game inspired Max Payne, and now we have to rethink that earlier statement…Almost 15 years after Nixon, Oliver Stone takes on the life of another widely-despised Commander-in-Chief with W.; we expect a fair-and-balanced portrayal from Josh Brolin in the title role. Oct. 24: Okay, we can understand taking three lengthy films to do justice to the Lord of the Rings saga, but how do you explain Saw V?...High School Musical 3: Senior Year threatens to reveal the truth about Troy and Gabriella’s college plans…Pride and Glory sounds like the latest inspired-by-atrue- story sports film, but it’s actually a cops-and-gangsters story starring Edward Norton, Colin Farrell and the brother of the movie’s producer. OPENING SOON The Beachcomber Goes to the Movies with whom he works in order to come that much closer to the elusive leader.

Eventually this leads Ferris to join forces with Jordanian intelligence official Hani Salaam (Mark Strong), a relationship that is constantly shaken by the offbeat interjections of Hoffman. The plot thickens as Agent Ferris hatches a plot to smoke out Al Saleem by creating a fictitious terrorist unit himself and staging a “fake tragedy” to bring out the jealous drama queen in the warlord and make his presence known. Of course, in the espionage world things never go this smoothly, and soon Ferris is forced to make some tough choices, choices that cost him dearly.

The acting in the film is adequate despite the unnecessary hints of a southern drawl by DiCaprio and the complete negligence in explaining Crowe’s Aussie/American accent. DiCaprio and Crowe are fantastic as solo acts, but their interaction takes place completely via the telephone and never comes across as genuine conversation. This could be due to the fact that their dialogue is maddeningly repetitious throughout the entire film. DiCaprio is constantly asking Crowe to let him handle it, and Crowe responds with some variation of “You got it, pal,” or “If that’s what you want, amigo.” Crowe delivers these highly sensitive conversations in a plethora of suburban stereotypes such as his children’s soccer game or a school play with apparent disregard for privacy or even voice modulation.

A surprise scene-stealer is Mark Strong, whom audiences may remember from Syriana, an earlier and superior film of roughly the same content and significance. Strong’s Hani Salaam is simultaneously affable and menacing, and his scenes with DiCaprio are by far the most dynamic and powerful.

Body of Lies has lots of potential to be the sleek spy thriller that we all expected. Unfortunately, in an attempt to humanize Agent Ferris by showing his complete character evolution, we are forced to sit through extended scenes of banal phone conversations and lingering reaction shots that suck the energy both from the film and the audience. Which raises a question that begs to be answered: If our spy movies regarding the War on Terror have become snoozefests, have the terrorists already won?

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