Body of Lies
By Marshall Fine
Rating:
Who's in it: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe
What's it about: A CIA agent (DiCaprio) in the Middle East finds himself at odds with his boss (Crowe), even as he gets personally involved in the search for a terrorist leader.
Bad guys: Who are the villains here? The jihadists, sure – but also the headstrong CIA chief played by Crowe, who keeps second-guessing and interfering with DiCaprio's efforts on the ground in Jordan and elsewhere. Or is it that DiCaprio is getting too involved in his work? Really, who cares? This movie has its moments of excitement but not enough of them. Instead, it goes way out of its way to make things complicated, as if we didn't already know that the war on terror was a moral swamp. We've seen this plot – the American who thinks he understands the Middle Eastern mind and gets proven wrong – too many times for this version to pack a wallop. Both DiCaprio and Crowe bring their A games, but the script seems to go nowhere – or maybe it's just that it goes exactly where you expect.
Long story short: This spy tale is muddled and dark.
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