Over and over we're shown what Ferris is up to from high above, as he deals and double-deals shadowy terrorists, or canoodles with his Iranian-Jordanian nurse friend, played by Golshifteh Farahani. Ferris, by contrast, is tortured, shot at and morally clouded - he doesn't like the collateral damage his latest assignment is racking up, and he never knows if he's about to be hung out to dry by his employers.ĭirector Scott knows how to wrestle complicated story lines involving many geographical hot spots, and he certainly enjoys the high-tech toys and surveillance equipment of modern warfare.

The head of Jordanian intelligence, played by a sleek, cold Mark Strong, brings similar strengths to his line of work. The man is good at his job, pleasantly ruthless about it and completely unflappable. The most interesting thing about this slick but frustrating picture is the way it puts Crowe's Hoffman at the center of our mixed feelings. Crowe's Hoffman spends much of the film on the phone doing mundane domestic activities (watching his kid's soccer match, hanging out at home) while chatting up DiCaprio's Roger Ferris, setting up the next deadly game of deception designed to entrap an Osama bin Laden-style terrorist. It begins with a botched but deadly terrorist bombing in Manchester, England, and zips around the globe from there, sticking mostly to the Middle East. The film is the latest collaboration between Crowe and director Ridley Scott. Monahan adapts the novel by Washington Post writer David Ignatius. Royally profane invective in 'The Departed.' His dialogue has the virtue of simply being fun to deliver,Īlthough in 'Body of Lies' the mood is more grim, and the story is vexingly Byzantine.

') Monahan won an Oscar for his richly brocaded cat-and-mouse games and (Elsewhere Crowe's Ed Hoffman begins a Nixonian smoke screen of an explanation Then, inscrutably, he adds: 'I watched that 'Poseidon.'' Played by Leonardo DiCaprio, about the flight. Getting off a plane inĪmman, Jordan, Crowe - who gained 50 pounds for the role - is asked by his weary, wary man in the Middle East, 'Body of Lies,' tosses off one of screenwriter William Monahan's nuttier non-sequiturs. People forget this because technically he's a movie star.įor example: Take the way Crowe, who plays a Central Intelligence Agency spymaster in the busy new thriller Russell Crowe is one of the wittiest character actors in movies.

Body of lies movie reviews