Live Life Team
‘Body of Lies’ has all the ingredients of a typical war drama – USA, the Arabs, Israel and Palestine, Russell Crowe, Leonardo Di Caprio and an apparently subtle message. To be honest, sometimes it really feels like every possible angle about USA’s several wars is over and done with. But this movie tries to introduce a new angle.
Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe) is the quintessential CIA vet whose war is waged through his laptop while he sips coffee in his suburban home. He’s also a paranoid American for whom terrorists aren’t human. Roger Ferris (Leonardo Di Caprio) is the CIA’s best ground agent, who blows his cover and seeks refuge with the Jordanian boss of intelligence.
The movie’s worth a watch because Leo carries on in Blood Diamond’s action mode and the torture scene where his nails are hammered really made me cringe! I like Russell Crowe’s Arkansas accent and I read somewhere he really piled on the kilos to literally “fit” his role!
I expect only the very best from Crowe and Di Caprio these days but what lets them down is a plot that is middle ranking and even Ridley Scott’s direction isn’t at its best here. The movie ends in a typically morally dramatic style with Hoffman remaining the white terrorist-hater who almost gets Ferris killed. And Ferris opts to continue living in Jordan with his ladylove after being saved by the Jordanian Hoffman insisted on double-crossing.
I liked the general idea of the movie but I think the direction needed a few more sharp edges to really make you hate Ed Hoffman and empathise with Roger Ferris, and the movie’s ultimate message: Despite the good folks on either side, terrorism is dividing the world and making us hate each other.
