Trust no one. Decieve everyone. Talk about it. A lot.

I like Ridley Scott. He's made some solid films, and Numb3rs has really taken off these past three seasons. I also like Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the finest actors of his generation. And Russell Crowe has yet to turn in a performance that's disappointed me.

Body of Lies (2008) features DiCaprio as up-and-coming CIA agent Roger Ferris, whose territory is the Middle East. Ferris is a man who's been around, seen things, and knows what he's doing. When his boss and predecessor assigns him to Jordan as acting station chief to coordinate the hunt for a terrorist leader, things seem to be going pretty well. Ferris is sensitive to Jordanian culture and customs, and national intelligence director Hani Salaam (character actor Mark Strong) likes him. However, Hani is also excellent at his job, and his dealings with Ferris are unavoidably tainted by his bad experiences with said predecessor, Ed Hoffman (Crowe). Hani agrees to let Ferris operate in Jordan, and even to provide him with Jordanian intelligence people and resources, on one condition: honesty. He requires Ferris to promise not to lie to him, and the exploration of expectations regarding truth and lies set off by Hoffman forcing him to break that promise forms the closest thing this film has to a core.

There are some aspects to this film that are well-conceived. The acting from DiCaprio, Crowe, and Strong is above reproach, and Crowe's American continues to improve. The promises Ferris makes throughout the film are not those of a naive idealist because they're ones he has authority, as acting station chief, to make - an unfortunately unique feature in a spy film, and a welcome one. As well, the sound editing is first-rate - I only needed one to two volume bars of difference between dialogue and explosions. And Scott's never had trouble filming good action, so those explosions are pretty nice, too. There are also some interesting explorations, like the paradox of the distrustful intelligence man who expects his allies to divulge all while being unwilling to do so himself, and a commentary on the failings of technology as related to the war on terror.

Unfortunately, that's where the accolades end. I can't recommend Body of Lies to anyone, because it isn't good. The script, based on a novel of the same name, brings up around half a dozen distinct ideas and pronouncements that fail to converge and instead run about in different directions for the duration. The film itself has no direction; it just trundles along like a person who loves to talk and doesn't know when to stop. At 128 minutes, and with so much unnecessary content, it's far too long. Perhaps this shouldn't be too surprising from Scott, who, let's face it, hasn't made a truly tight film of proper pace and length since Alien. What is surprising is this the script is by William Monahan, who also wrote The Departed. This may be a good clue as to how much influence a (famous) director has on the plotting of a movie.

The other big boo-hiss for Body of Lies is the presence of unnecessary gore. If you know me, or read this blog on a semi-regular basis, you'll know I support realism in the portrayal of atrocities, and showing violence as it really is, but only as is necessary to the plot, message, character studies, etc. A good example of this is Children of Men, in which the brutal and constant string of deaths serve to emphasize the film's deep concern for life. Or, for a more direct comparison here, the torture scene in Casino Royale - disturbing, effective, and conveyed entirely through a gore-free and very creepy visual set-up and Daniel Craig's acting. Body of Lies starts out strong in this area, with Ferris sustaining injuries early on that morph into ugly scars as the film progresses, and a scene following an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) attack in which a disturbingly large amount of someone else's bone fragments are picked out of Ferris' arm. However, the film's torture scene - which is not, in itself, out of place - features more than one close-up of a man's fingers being systematically severed with a hammer. This full-frontal assault was not only unnecessary, but also detrimental to the scene as the sudden shock of revulsion pulled me away from what was happening and being said. I find this use of gore usually has the effect of causing a disconnect from the story, or overshadowing it.

Body of Lies was recommended to Corey by a Blockbuster employee who compared it to Spy Game. If you want to watch a good mentor-protegee/foreign relations spy film, pick up the latter. Also, Corey says that Syriana (which I still haven't watched, as it gathers dust on the shelf) tackles many of the same issues as Body of Lies while being a far superior film. So, there are options in this genre that won't make you regret the ridiculous cost of rental. Huzzah!