Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in Body of Lies

His once reviled Blade Runner is now hailed as a masterpiece. Dozens have been influenced by his stunning visuals and he now has an increased output of one film a year. It is just a shame quality and quantity has shown a negative correlation. Whilst American Gangster put Scott back on the radar, it still wasn’t enough to conceal such blips as A Good Year, G.I Jane and Kingdom of Heaven. Body of Lies manages to sit in neutral territory but only because like so many have already pointed out, he plays it safe.

Russell Crowe is once again present in Scott’s latest but this time he is paired up with blooming great Leonardo DiCaprio and although they rarely share the same frame together, there is great chemistry between the two: the several moments of humorous banter between act as a remedy to ease the heavy laden subject matter but even this cannot prepare the audience for the brutality at the film’s climax. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Roger Ferris a special agent for the CIA working in Jordon to try and take down terrorists. His boss, Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) is stationed in the comfort of his own home and is constantly directing his man. However, at times Hoffman likes to run other operations without Ferris knowing. Russell Crowe is great as Hoffman, just because his character does relatively little (talks in earpiece, eats and repeat) but this does not mean Crowe’s performance is lazy or weak, he is excellent at conveying a very obnoxious and single minded man whose sole focus is to eradicate terrorism (metaphor for America?) and it gives him a loathe him or hate him quality.

The main problem with the film is a lack of enthusiasm that comes across from its director: where has his visual style gone? Sure, it looks $100 million but its lack of meticulous detail makes it, for a Ridley Scott film, feel like a rush job. What is puzzling is that it’s also overlong; an odd quality to share with a seemingly rushed film. Scott seems less interested at times in exploring issues like terrorism than making an action film out of it. Sure it is well acted and entertaining but it still feels rather disposable. That said it is an interesting take on the story, there are many twists and developments that will keep audiences interested and perhaps most of all the refreshing dynamic of deceit being at all corners even if it is all rather apprehensible.

I am somewhat unsure as to how to perceive the film’s ending: it seemed like a traditional Hollywood cop out and it would have been more powerful if it had ended differently however the final scenes that follow the climax do seem to make some truthful statements about America’s dedication to the most precious areas. Either way, Scott’s film could have been a bit more ferocious when tackling its subject matter that way it would have been much more effective.

Body of Lies should be important as should any film tackling these issues, otherwise it becomes exploitative. Whilst I wouldn’t go as far to suggest it exploits modern world issues, I would say that Scott keeps things moving at a fast pace and treats every narrative event with the same importance but it has the opposite effect: nothing feels important and it all feels contrived.

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