body of lies movie review new york times

The movie is intense with a harrowing climax, but it's not witty or memorable. The moment he realizes how he's been used is murky. The moment Ferris hatches his scheme is missing. And director Ridley Scott lets nothing interfere with his liquidity-split pacing, including the need to slow down and hit some basic narrative beats. But the movie script by William Monahan is un-gamely. It's a good gimmick and well-orchestrated in the novel by 'Washington Post' journalist, David Ignatius, who knows the territory. 'Body of Lies' turns on an emerging terrorist leader called Al-Saleem and Ferris' plot to smoke him out by creating a fictional terrorist, the idea being that Al-Saleem's ego will be threatened by a rival. He's meant to embody American callousness and American incompetence, too, because even though he understands intellectually that al Qaeda has shunned technology and is playing a ground game, he's not on the ground where it matters. To Ed, everyone is expendable - frightened informants, contract employees, agents. You're ready to go?ĮDELSTEIN: Whatever is right. DICAPRIO: (As Roger Ferris) Well, don't back me up because I don't need it, all right? It's a dangerous dangerous world out there, you know. CROWE: (As Ed Hoffman) I'm just trying to back you up, buddy. DICAPRIO: (As Roger Ferris) You were going to blow this entire Amman operation. DICAPRIO: (As Roger Ferris) We have to respect what he wants. LEONARDO DICAPRIO: (As Roger Ferris) Listen, you want me to run Amman? Let me run Amman, all right? I had made promises to Hani Salam. He can kiss his kids goodbye at a Virginia school while talking tactics to Roger, whom he always calls buddy on his headset. When Ferris forms an alliance with the head of Jordanian intelligence, Hani Salam, to do surveillance on a terrorist's safe house, Ed plays his own spy games on the side out of habit. He's also committed to wiping al Qaeda off the map. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Roger Ferris, an idealistic Mideast CIA operative constantly undermined by his chummy Langley-based boss Ed, played by Russell Crowe with 20 or so extra pounds.Įd doesn't intentionally screw up Ferris' mission. The politics are snuck in under the cliffhangers. politic so deeply into the narrative that the characters don't need to make big speeches. Film critic David Edelstein has a review.ĭAVID EDELSTEIN: 'Body of Lies' is a so-so thriller, but it's fascinating as the first American war-on-terror movie to weave its anti-U.S. DiCaprio plays a Mideast CIA agent on the ground, and Crowe plays his boss back at Langley. In Ridley Scott's new thriller, 'Body of Lies,' Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe operate in the shadowy world of spies and deceit in the age of terrorism.

Body of lies movie review new york times