It took me two nights to watch Body of Lies, mostly because I just have nights to watch DVD movies these days, and also because it coincided with some football that I just have to see.
What perturbed me most at the end of the viewing is the number of times I had to rewind the movie to watch some parts that I had missed owing to the fact that I had dropped off into dreamland. Not something that usually happens in a Ridley Scott movie, certainly not with one that had enough dynamite(literally) to blow up Baghdad all over again.
So, there were the usual pyrotechnics, body parts flying through the air, or just being chopped off a living being. Not to mention two heavyweights of the thespian variety jostling for screen space. That should have been enough, shouldn’t it? Well, not quite.
A friend of mine recently commented that if he saw another film over the holocaust he would stop believing it had ever happened. I’d have to say something similar now in the whole jihadi terrorism-western intelligence context.
Told in the most dispassionate manner possible, the plot revolves a CIA agent stationed in the Middle East, digging up dirt on a new terror figurehead who has declared war against the West. Roger Ferris rummages up enough info to know that the rogue leader Al Salem operates out of Jordan. He ingratiates himself into Jordanian intelligence, convincing its enigmatic chief Hani Salaam to share information and resources. Conflicting ideals rise to the surface when Ferris’ Langley contact Ed Hoffman tries to wrest control over a jihadi that Hani has just persuaded to act as a double agent. Rebuffed by Hani, Hoffmann uses his resources to enforce control over the informer.
The attempt goes horribly wrong, and an enraged Hani orders Ferris out of Jordan. The war of attrition continues as Ferris finds his way back, but Hoffman and Hani do enough to make things extremely sticky for him. A love angle is inserted in the mix in the form of an Iranian nurse who fascinates Ferris, enough for him to risk all when news of her kidnapping reaches him.
Pacy as you would expect a Ridley Scott film, I think where this movie fails to grip is its inability to generate any emotion for anything (living or dead) in the movie. Not just the characters, its really difficult to feel for any aspect of the situation they find themselves in. A couple of half hearted efforts are made in the form of the blossoming love affair between Ferris and the Iranian nurse, and snippets of Hoffman’s life seemingly intruding into his worklife. Hoffmann complains about how he has to take his kids to see Lion King again.
Scott’s attempt at personalising some of this really comes off as feeble gestures made just to humanise the situation a little. In the end, these fall pitiably short, and that wouldn’t have rankled as much as it does if the script was more tautly driven. As it stands, there is nothing here that holds the story up but some interplay between the main characters, especially the sequences between Ferris and Hani that brings up some of the best scenes of the movie.
Performances are so-so, Di Caprio is competent if irritating in parts - and he really should do something about the signature "Hah" that he has at the end of most of his sentences. It was most effective in Blood Diamond, but now its stuck on like the wig that Dev Anand wears - and has the same grating effect on the sensibilities. Crowe as Hoffman is suitably grimy - looks and acts like the weasel his character is. Mark Strong as Hani is the most impressive of all. His skill of merging himself into the character makes his character startlingly realistic and believable. I did not recognise him from his previous credits, and when I read up about him later, I was extremley surprised to know of his Brit-Aussie orgins. Excellent disguise, my man!
You tend to expect more from a Ridley Scott movie, even if the frequency of his movies cast some doubt over the efficacy and freshness of his work. Not a must-watch, but not a don’t-bother either. So watch it, think about it, fret over how little you take back from it, and then forget it....till the next movie on the jihad-chasers.