Spy thrillers have one thing in common. They all are confusing.
When you get swept away into the world of espionage one of the first things lost amid the ambiguously unclear plot is comprehension. Once you realize that you won’t completely understand what’s happening until the very end, it’s easier to just sit back and take it.
‘Body of Lies’ maintains the legacy of the spy thriller while creating a meaningful social commentary on the state of the Middle East, and it can be best described through the film’s three main characters.
Russell Crowe plays Ed Hoffman, a high-ranking CIA agent who controls the Middle Eastern sphere of intelligence from the safety of his western society. He has grown fat and arrogant, and has a sense of entitlement that stems from the fact that he’s American. His contempt for Middle-Eastern culture is played perfectly by Crowe, whose brilliant American accent is matched by the fact that he gained 50 pounds for the role. Believe me, he is not the gladiator that once brought him to fame.
His conceited and discourteous character is played off marvelously by the Jordan Intelligence Director Hanni, played by Mark Strong. Hanni is the foil to Crowe’s Hoffman, as Hanni is portrayed as’ subtle, polite, shrewd, yet immersed in the Middle-Eastern way of life. Mark Strong, while never getting much attention because of his overshadowing two co-stars, really is a central character in the film and more than holds his own among two of the greatest actors today.
Somewhere between the two extremes is Roger Faris, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who continues to solidify his career with an excellent performance. He is the American hero, who selflessly engrosses himself in the Middle-Eastern way of life to combat the threat that plagues his homeland. Yet, being so engrossed, he develops a respect for the Middle East, which in time develops into love. It is capsulated in a love story between him and an Iranian Nurse named Aisha and played by Golshifteh Farahani.
The three of these characters battle each other to achieve the same goal. Faris, being the middle man, loses a sense of who to trust. But, since it is DiCaprio and he must be the star, it is him who creates a brilliant plot to capture a high ranking terrorist, and it is him who is impaled upon his own sword when everything seems to go wrong. The story throughout is spot on, with a script by William Monaghan, the writer of The Departed, and directed by the peerless Ridley Scott.
If you are reading this in the paper, you’ll notice that, despite this all together glowing review, the movie didn’t receive my full marks. I assure you I have a perfectly reasonable explanation.
You see, movies achieve greatness with a proportionate amount of depth. Depth of emotion, depth of comedy, depth of characters. This movie did not have depth. Every time this movie hinted at a source of depth, it instead delved into a depth of that spy thriller virtue, complexity. Most of the great movies are great because they reflected the simplicity of the human condition, where everything boiled down into one great conflict. When a movie seems to express a desire to present this for its audience, only to rip it away to get more caught up in itself, it’s more confusing than moving. Many times this is the undoing of spy thrillers, and it is so in this movie as well.
However, this movie wasn’t a complete disaster. It showed a side to the Middle East that is rarely shown, and its beautiful scenery was breathtaking at times. By showing an American (DiCaprio) fighting for his country falling in love with the culture displays hope that these two polar opposite societies can still get along.
When I got up mid-movie for my customary bathroom break, I swear I walked past somebody sleeping. While I find this an unspeakable act of sin, it is possible that others may not be taken in by the suspense or the complexity that this plot tries to grasp. And in the end, the movie is good but it certainly won’t blow you away. There was also a bit of … oh, what’s it called? I know it was something important that I was thinking about before the realization of the conclusion smacked me in the face… It had something to do with society… Oh well, I guess it wasn’t that important.
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