Review of Body of Lies (2008) by Jacob H — 20 Mar 2010

Excellent and recommended. Deliberately slower paced, but I liked that- more time spent building up atmosphere and tension, and I was never bored during its 2 hour run. Intelligent and thought-provoking too- the main characters are complex and flawed. And by keeping the plot relatively low-key (no saving-the-world type stuff) you genuinely don't know what's going to happen. Mark Strong is superb, DiCaprio is good. I didn't completely like Russel Crowe's characterisation but it was a strong performance- it just didn't quite work for me. Visually very strong too- and mercifully Ridley Scott has (largely) ditched the annoying shakey-camera work of previous films.

Why the high rating? Partly because I was in just the right mood when I saw it, but mainly because this film achieves exactly what it sets out to do- it's not trying to be an epic like Gladiator or Blade Runner- it's meant to be about the characters and the story, and although it has explosions and car chases, it doesn't go totally overboard and manages to maintain that focus.